chattering birds

I sat down by a lily pond to have a few minutes of meditation before dinner, to sit quietly. And the first thing I noticed was the chattering of these birds – completely incessant. Of course I like birdsong. It's quite pleasant to listen to these birds chattering away. But it did remind me of the human mind and the way our mind chatters away to itself non-stop, from dawn, through dusk, until we sleep.

These birds really are a great mirror for the way our thoughts proceed. And now right on cue, with the sun setting, they finally stop chattering to each other, just as our mind stops thinking when we finally enter deep sleep. I guess these birds only chatter for a few minutes, at dawn and at sunset. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our thoughts were like that: popping up maybe once or twice a day, and falling into silence in between. Most of our thoughts are so useless: either trivia, or unwanted concerns, worries, anxieties, about things that we can't do anything about anyway.

Anyway, thank you to these chattering birds for reminding me just what the thinking mind is like.