Sparrows

I was driving home with my husband on Sunday and, along the way, we came across two little sparrows in the road. As we passed, I realized that one of them was dead, its little body smushed into the blacktop. The second sparrow, however, was very much alive, flapping wildly but staying put by its fallen friend. At the last possible moment, right before our car drove past, the living sparrow flew away to a tree at the side of the road.

Turning completely around to check out the scene (luckily, my husband was driving) I watched the sparrow swoop back again, resuming it's position with the other bird once our car had cleared the spot.

Seeing this sight, this sad, little bird futilely flying back and forth from tree to road, tugged at my heart a little bit.

"Oh no," my husband muttered, noticing me notice the birds. "This is going to bother you all day now ... Just don't think about it."

But how could I do anything but?

That tiny little bird was going to be busy all day long, flying and swooping, flying and swooping, thinking in its tiny, little brain that its friend would eventually fly away too. Now, some might wave this situation off as just a dumb animal, doing what animals do ...

I saw something else:

How often in life do we do exactly the same thing, and hold on to something that obviously needs to be released?

I know, in my life, there are many things that I just need to forget and move away from, yet somehow, I can't bring myself to do it. Rather than "letting go," I cling on for dear life, avoiding good sense at all costs, and hoping that somehow, someway, the thing I need to forget will prove useful. Whether this "thing" is a past relationship that fizzled, an object, a distant memory, or a feeling does not matter. It really makes no difference.

If I do not let go, I will be like that sad, little sparrow, wasting its time swooping back and forth for nothing.

Maybe it's time to let go.