hanging in the balance

It was a hot day in the desert and the ceiling fan was running at maximum speed in the café of the old fort. A pair of little birds were busy building a nest in a hole in the wall, coming and going, fetching materials. The male flew out of the hole but was startled by a sudden movement at a nearby table and swerved in mid air. It flew straight into the spinning blades of the fan.

The bird crashed to the floor and lay there, dazed and panting, his tiny body in a crumpled heap. I picked him up and nestled him in my hand. There was only the slightest trickle of reiki – strange considering his desperate condition. Perhaps this is the end for him, I thought. One wing was partly unfolded in an unnatural looking way; his head was hanging at an alarming angle; his closed eye seemed to be oddly bulging; his tiny legs and feet had seized up. But still he was breathing. What is it to be, little bird? Is it time to let go of life?

For ten minutes or more, not much happened, just a steady trickle of reiki. Then, without any warning, there was a sudden rush of energy, like a dam bursting, gallons of reiki pouring into the tiny being. And it had not the feel of death.

For half an hour he lay there, enclosed in the womb of the hands, soaking up the reiki without moving. Then I felt a little shuffle and, taking a peek, found that the wonky wing had been neatly folded in against the body. Shortly afterwards I handed him into another pair of loving hands so that I could drink my chai. By the time I took him back, his legs had uncramped and he no longer wanted to lie down. Instead he stood on my finger and then my leg, looking around, posing for a photograph and lapping up a final dose of reiki before flying off back into life.

A few days later I was back in the café and took a look at the hole in the wall. Sure enough, the head of a little bird emerged, a bird with a damaged right eye. He flew out into the light and up to the top of the wall, where a female was sunning herself. And there they danced the eternal dance...

(March 2005)