Some warblers and/or chickadees were talking just now. Oh to be a bird! they have their own society, of birds from ALL species. It is their conversations and newsworld we hear when they all mingle their songs in the hood together. This is a sweet magic I have learned in this hood: if you love birds already but are very impatient generally as well, yea, flaw, the most exciting and exhilarating and curious way (I think) to practice patience is to be so still you let the bird songs take over in your hood. While practicing with awareness PATIENCE, reflecting about it, gently and softly. I think i was let in on a bird watcher secret in this hood: it is exactly that!

To have an intellectual mind, one has to have this first trait essentially which must be there: openness of the mind. Now, not intellectuals only can have open minds. Bird watchers too. Travelers of the simple kind, immigrants, migrants: they too have an open mind. What does it mean to have an open mind? It means you are open to learning about other realities. if you live in the city and are however the loner type and don't enjoy society too much, become a bird watcher. I agree, humans are not always super quieting of our anguish to each other. But birds who sing? They ARE another world that we can only observe wiht patience if we want to learn ANYTHING from it. Birds do not hurt us. We do not have to fear them so perhaps we can all easily be more open to them, to learning from their world.