This past week my aunt and her family went on vacation so my parents agreed to pet-sit for them. They have a beautiful blue parakeet named Lily. My aunt and uncle have had her for a few years now, but I totally forgot about her until I heard something chirping in the porch. And there she was.
I decided to sit down on the daybed and 'birdwatch' if you will. Lily was pretty quiet, only really chirping when she heard the other outdoor birds chirp. I watched her hop around in her cage from bar to bar, playing with the few toys they had given her and then becoming bored quite quickly. And the way she hopped around her cage, it was as though she was trying to escape out into the wild, dangerous world to play and discover with all the other free birds. And then she stopped chirping.
It was then that I realized that although a different species, Lily and I aren't so different after all.
I have been content with where I live, my job, the car I drive, the food I eat for too long. Can someone really be content locked up in that cage, wondering what is on the outside and never actually doing anything about it?
I was on the inside, looking outward, wondering what life had in store for me instead of actually doing something about it. And, like Lily, I want to know what is on the other side. I am tired of living in a cage, the way people live in glass houses. And I'm getting tired of trying thing after thing, thinking it may help define me, only to get bored in the end. But I know I don't want to stop chirping.
So, from now, I will do what Lily cannot. I plan my escape from a life with no passion. I will discover and live wildly and freely on that other side. I will explore my spirituality and who I am fervently. And I will wander down that road.
But first I must break out.
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