FINLEYWRITE : C. D. FINLEY WRITING
  • About
  • poetry
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Design >
      • Gallery

FishTalk (semi-regular blog)

honestly, who can blog every single day? 

Tin birds, bent sunlight and missed Sundays

3/28/2020

2 Comments

 
Picture
      There’s a tin dove hooked onto the window. It’s a window that doesn’t open so it’s a good spot for a bird made of metal that will never fly but which represents flying. I come in to touch it from time to time and pretend I can, like an inoculation, get a bit of bird-ness, of movement and desire to fly high from it. I suppose that’s why it’s there. I’m not even sure where it came from, but it is something that has a power as inanimate objects sometimes do. When I moved here it was in the box and I placed it without too much thought on the old sunroom window. It seems more important than ever now that we’re all stuck in one place.
     We do hold onto things. We hold onto memories and objects and hopes and dreams. I carried a whole bunch of my paintings around with me for years, decades, until one day I just let go of them. Things go on until they don’t. I suppose that’s the thought most of all in these pandemic times…when normal is anything but.
     The other morning I saw a bit of sunlight on the ceiling and it was bent as if by magnets or magic and it stopped me. I took a photo of it because if light can bend , if bending light  is possible, right here in my living room, why not miraculous cures? Why not all kinds of miracles? I find myself thinking of the things one thinks about after a long illness or after a fever of several days. It’s a clean slate of wonder about the world and what is possible if we can truly be ourselves and not the jealous, reactive, sometimes selfish people we have a tendency to become. It’s not like we do it entirely ourselves, but we can try harder. I can, I know that.
     The other day I had a conversation with someone and I allowed myself to overreact and I was not happy with myself later. Is it so hard to just allow others to be their weird selves and to be the Dalai Lama in the room; the one who accedes and concedes and smooths out, not the one pulling and tugging and making all the wrinkles? Well, remorseful, I am (Yoda speak). I resolve to try harder to not get all plugged in. But it is a delicate balance between surrendering and giving up. Big difference. On the one hand, you are accepting and contributing and on the other hand you are removing yourself and taking yourself out of the equation; just disappearing. Somewhere in the middle would be good.
     Let’s all be the tin bird; not flying, but representing all that we can be. Let’s be persevering but not privately hoping we win. Let’s all value ourselves, but not above others. God, it’s hard to do! I miss Sundays when I used to try to press the reset button. Now, it’s a drifting sort of existence without Sundays or weekends. We’re just all home all the time.
     But we can be our own tin bird; each one of us trying to represent and emulate and (+outside of the metaphor) reaching out to others and helping and acknowledging their efforts in the best way possible. It's not as hard as bending light, right? If this is too corny, I’m sorry. I’m a bit fond of corny. Sitting around with my cat has only made it more noticeable.


Picture
2 Comments
Christian Bolt link
5/7/2020 10:03:50 pm

Hi!, I relate so much to that bird and being something that cannot be. loved your writing!

Reply
Daniel Yates link
11/9/2022 04:39:19 am

Include occur box once early. Rise security man forget not side pressure.
Worry enter affect seem put hear describe. Design church family anyone. True movement husband decision.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    C. D. Finley

    Opinionated, wry, sometimes corny, observational humor mostly about writing, but you never know.

    Archives

    April 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    August 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    May 2022
    April 2022
    August 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    June 2019
    February 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018

    Categories

    All
    30 Poems In 30 Days
    Aging
    Anxiety
    Cats
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Drawing
    Eyesight
    Finley
    Fishtalk
    Gratitude
    Health
    Hilltowns
    Home
    Local Stuff
    Loss
    Personal Observations
    Poetry
    Publishing
    Quarantine Life
    Quarantine-life
    Quiet
    Seniors
    Starting Over
    The World As We Know It
    Time
    Western Mass
    Writing
    Writing Challenge
    Writing Community
    Writing Life

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • About
  • poetry
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Design >
      • Gallery