Keep Moving—Eventually You’ll Get Used to It

“By going and coming, a bird weaves its nest.” –Ashanti

This year I went to Florida with my family over spring break. It was so lovely to be away. We spent our time relaxing at our rental home and walking along the beach. 

Still, it was interesting to notice how quickly I was overwhelmed by traveling since I’ve become used to more space and quiet. As I described in my newsletter, I struggled to navigate the airport. Because I’m deaf and rely on reading lips and everyone around me was wearing masks, I couldn’t communicate at all during the journey. 

Even after the relaxing week, I came back exhausted and full of self-criticism. I couldn’t help wishing that it was easier to leave my nest. 

But the universe is always speaking to us. The next morning I saw that a mourning dove had made a nest on the windshield of my car, which had remained parked in my driveway all week. It made me remember the time a bird made a nest in my father’s car. He was so concerned about the babies hidden behind the headlight that he only went to work for a couple of hours each day. He didn’t want the birds to be away from the mother for too long. And this went on for six weeks!

I was determined this wouldn’t happen to me so I kept moving the dove’s sticks off my car, only to find, every morning, that she had started over with a new pile of sticks. 

I called a bird rescue for advice. “Just keep moving it,” I was told. “Eventually she’ll get used to it.” 

Finally, after moving the nest several times, the dove moved to the neighbor’s car. I kept moving her sticks from there as well, again and again. 

This was becoming an obsession. There was a challenge of wills between us. Who was going to win? We were both determined. 

My standoff with the dove was a message for me. When I surrendered to the energy of it, I kept hearing the word “nesting, nesting, nesting.”

I asked myself: How am I resisting the importance of being quiet and nesting?

Why do I judge myself for needing to nest?

Why am I hard on myself  when I feel afraid to leave the safety of my world?

I was choosing to be in the activity of moving the dove rather than taking a moment to stop and breathe. Because when I surrender to what’s unfolding and allow myself to do some deep, quiet work, I understand that all of nature deals with change. It’s OK to feel some resistance to it. 

As we come out of a difficult year, we have to balance our desire to get moving with the reality that nesting has become pretty comfortable! When faced with change, many of us want to be left alone, but we can’t go back to that way of being. 

We may want to stay in one place, but we’re being called to move forward into a new paradigm.

All movement is supported by the breath. We’re all part of a collective, conscious grid and when we breathe rhythmically, we connect to it. We are all affected. 

One way to create movement is to tone, or make sound. This loosens up our energetic body and connects us to a more spiritual plane. Spending just fifteen minutes a day doing conscious, deep breathing increases oxygen and releases toxins. 

So the goal is to first move our energy through the breath so we can step out into the world.

On my trip to Florida, I had to slow things down, by necessity. I had to ask people to talk slowly and to spell out their words. I was forced to be patient with myself and others. 

As I move in this rhythm, which is slower than it was before COVID, I look to the dove and know that I’ll be fine, wherever I land.