RIP Little Bird

In the spirit of "getting out of the house" today and with nothing much to do, I took a little trip to a local outdoor mall in our area that I haven't yet had a chance to peruse. I didn't really need anything, just to get away... alone. After getting a proper bra fitting at Vicoria's Secret (have been needing one of these forever!) and subjecting myself to the torture that is "eyebrow threading," I continued to stroll along, window shopping and day-dreaming.

As I turned a corner I had to stop short when I saw a dead bird laying crumpled in the middle of the sidewalk. It had recently and very obviously flew into a store window, broken it's neck and was no longer with us. I stepped around it and continued walking, all along feeling really, really sad, bad and heartbroken. Tears began to form in my eyes. I just couldn't walk one more step. I turned around and went straight back to the bird, picked it up and laid it down on the soft grass in the cool shade of a nearby bush. "There," I thought, "You can be rest peacefully now." I said a little prayer and went about my window shopping.

But as I walked along I began to wonder if I was a crazy person. Do normal people do this? Should I have just let the mall personnel take care of it? I began to be confused... but not for long. I came to understand that it's not crazy, it's respectful. Every living creature does have worth and should be respected... in life and in death. NOT understanding this is really what is wrong with our society. I realized it wasn't so much that the bird had died - birds die and go to heaven just like the rest of us. It was the fact that it was laying right there in the middle of a mall with people stepping over and around it like its life meant nothing... like it was a piece of used, discarded gum. As I delved deeper into the meaning of it all I thought of how this simple, random bird just so happened to take it's last breath on a spot of this earth that I later would walk. The least I could do was move it's earthly body out of harm's way. I feel better knowing this bird is now safe under that bush and not being trampled over by some insensitives and/or thrown in some dumpster. I also feel better knowing I was rewarded with a little clarity on respecting life - ALL life. RIP little bird, and thanks for the lesson...