Numinous Interspecies Connections; "Brown-wing", part one

Recently, my son and I were remembering a numinous experience that began one summer day about twenty five years ago. It is an experience that expanded my mind, for it doesn’t fit neatly in our western contemporary culture’s understanding of how nature works. It does though fit in my understanding of our reality that includes a vast, if not infinite, spectrum of subtle energy frequencies within all of life and all of our cosmos

We were renting a home in the foothills of the Sierras, on two acres of land. I was cleaning up the kitchen like I did everyday after feeding my three kids breakfast. We were homeschooling that year (unschooling) and they were outside playing. I walked out through the kitchen sliding door, onto the deck to check on them. I sensed something to the east of me, and looked out onto a young tree about fifteen feet from the deck. A small brown winged bird, perched on a branch directly across from me, seemed to be looking straight at me.. It is hard to imagine now, with my older eyes, but back then, I was able to see that something was wrapped around this little bird’s beak.

I stepped back into the kitchen, grabbed a fork from the silverware drawer and returned to the deck. I gently addressed the little bird, “If you can fly over here, I can help you”, I patted the railing, where I thought she could land. To my surprise, the little bird flew towards me and landed right there on the railing right in front of me. Fuzzy cobwebs were wrapped tightly around her tiny beak. She couldn’t open it a bit. I wondered how hungry and thirsty she must be. I carefully maneuvered the fork to loosen the cobwebs and they fell off her beak onto the deck. As soon as they did, she flew back to her perch in the young tree, then flew back and forth from tree to deck railing in front of me. I went back into the kitchen and brought out a shallow dish of water and set it on the deck.

For a week she stayed with us. We named her, “Brown-wing”. She spent her time perched somewhere on the deck railing, or in her tree. When we were inside, she’d often land on the built in box on the deck that was window height, that allowed her to look in us. What I remember most, that makes me smile big, is her flying near my kids when they played outside. She even landed on my younger son’s shoulder. After about a week, she flew on and we didn’t see her again, but we have never forgotten her.

Remembering “Brown-wing” reminds me, that all species of life are in this earth adventure together. There is no one form of life superior to another. I understand that Brown-wing and me, Brown-wing and my kids, were communicating in the universal language of telepathy…the subtle energy of our minds (and the information the energy holds) reaching out to the subtle energy of Brown-wing’s mind (and the information it holds) and visa versa.

Our subtle energy, spiritual reality, abounds everywhere and within all of life. How easy it is to get caught up in our mental noise, our worries, our hectic schedules, and to miss the numinous, the mystical, within the current moment. To be present to the moment, means being present, not rejecting of or hiding from what is. This means facing yourself, your feelings, your circumstances, your challenges. The more we live present and aware, the less chance we have of missing the numinous and mystical experiences waiting in the present moment, or our small but powerful spiritual teachers, like Brown-wing.