By Aubrey Forbes, Minnesota

Who Will Answer?

The Loon calls across

The still surface of lake wisdom.

Fishes in the deep do not stir.

Let the sound wash over you,

Watch it move across the surface

Rippling the feathers of ducks and seagulls.

Let it stir your insides into a frenzy for wisdom.

The White Eagle

When the soft wind rushes up from inside

My flute makes divine music.

Eagles land in the backyard

Call our names in a thousand different melodies

With feathers of white wind,

And eyes of a million suns

Talons like rays of golden sun,

Shine wisdom on the stories of my life

Some come running to listen,

Some take flight into inner space.

Flutes celestial still playing with every breath.

We rise, we rise to the music of your calling.

—Second photo by Kristy Walker

An Exercise to Try

Aubrey’s poetry summons the beauty of birds and nature to draw our hearts closer to God. Has watching birds or nature ever opened your heart to the love that is all around you? Use the following spiritual exercise to let birds help you learn how to fly.

A Spiritual Exercise to Learn from the Birds

By Harold Klemp, from Animals Are Souls Too!

Some years ago I worked with a man whose hobby was bird-watching. At the time I didn’t really understand what he saw in it. But I have since come to appreciate his love for birds.

They have so much to teach.

Birds are working off their karma too. You often see them fighting with each other. In the bird pecking order, sparrows are at the bottom. Blackbirds are a cut above the sparrows, blue jays are above the blackbirds. One day I saw a little yellow bird drive off a blackbird and a crow. It chased them all around the yard. Like spiritual seekers, some birds come as eagles, not as doves. And like the yellow bird, we’re small but feisty, if we need to be.

So, as a spiritual exercise, feed the birds. Your job is simply to bring the food and to learn from them. Watch how they show us how to act and how not to act.

They often show us the love and wisdom of God.