The Lesson From a Black headed Seagull

Today we saw many black headed seagulls at Rehoboth Beach, DE.  These birds we did not notice when we were visiting Orchard Beach, Maine last year and yet seeing as they migrate south from Eastern Canada one would think there would have been many there.  As we sat and watched them fly, we noticed the group were not as noisy as the white headed gulls we see at most beaches.

I said to my Sweetheart, "Although it would be wonderful to fly like that over the water, it must be a surprise if it should be flying out to sea and eating, and then have an unexpected storm take you further out, so far out you have no strength to get back to shore and maybe into the water to die."

My Honey said, "They probably cannot know surprise because they live in the moment, truly in the moment.  If they  get carried out to sea, they don't get anxious, they just fly with it, if they go down and can't get back up in the air they don't know it until it happens.  They either get up and live or stay down and drown, but they have no anxiety about the life they live, they just go with it."

By George I think he's right.  Eckhart Tolle teaches to be present every moment is to be free. We see it in nature everyday. We humans love to attach human emotions to every living thing, (I know I tend to do this) yet the animal kingdom operates out of a need to know basis, instinct.  The rebound time is shorter for them it seems, survival is all that matters.

Nature does teach us many things but the maybe the best lesson is to be present and just go with it.  If we humans could live in this consciousness of no anxiety about what will happen and no regrets over what happened yesterday life would be simpler.  We could just get on with living life doing what we love to do.