Last Friday evening hubby and I were headed up to Worship Night at church. As we drove across the wide broad Sammamish Valley there were hundreds upon thousands of birds getting ready to head south! The tilled farm ground on either side was covered black with birds. The sky overhead was filled with large clouds of swooping, darting swarms of birds.
As we continued our drive to church, all along the way we could see large clouds of swooping, swarms of birds heading off on their migratory journey.
Our temperatures were supposed to drop down to 29 degrees over the weekend. The birds knew. Somehow the birds knew.
They knew it was time to go now. And seeing as it was 6pm when we were driving up to Worship Night, they were obviously planning on flying all night.
Yesterday I came across this fascinating piece of information in my Inspired Evidence devotional book, by Julie von Vett & Bruce Malone.
“Birds have exceptional hearing but in a lower frequency range than normal human hearing. Birds can actually hear bad weather approaching. A day or two prior to a major storm, you might have noticed birds frantically feeding at your bird feeder. These birds hear the storm coming and prepare for it.
“Also, birds such as hawks and eagles can actually hear the low frequency sounds of approaching thermal air changes. This is good because their very lives depend on thermal currents in order to soar. Birds can also detect very minute differences in air pressure. You could say they have barometers in their ears. Birds need to be very aware of the weather and the changes taking place in order to survive.”
Is that not cool! Birds have built-in barometers! That’s how they knew the temperature was getting ready to drop down to 29* and that it was time to go … now!
This also is from Inspired Evidence, which I happened across yesterday as well:
“The Blackpoll Warblers fly non-stop for the entire 85 hours it takes to migrate all the way to South America. A bar-tailed godwit, fitted with a tracking device, flew 7,100 miles non-stop in just over 8 days! Hummingbirds migrating from Minnesota meet their greatest challenge when they cross the Gulf of Mexico. They must fly 600 miles non-stop across the Gulf waters to reach South America. They do this in 18 hours. … ”
I love the birdsong filling the forest! It fills my life with so much joy!
But my forest isn’t all there is.
My forest is just a stop along the way.
It’s a small piece of a much bigger picture – from South America all the way up to northern reaches of Canada!
In much the same way, we each are just a “stop along the way” in someone else’s life journey.
Our lives are every bit as transient. We stay at a job a few years … then move on in our career to another position, perhaps in another company. The people we interact with in this position in this company … it’s just a “stop along the way.” We will move on in our lives. They too will move on in their lives.
We live in this house, in this neighborhood … we have our kids in this school … we are part of community at this church. Then life moves us on. And life moves our friends on.
Most of the people we never see again … our time together with them was “just a stop along the way.”
Nevertheless, they had an impact on us! And we, likewise, had an impact on them.
Working together with them changed us. Helped to shape who we are. Broadened our mind. Filled our life with joy!
We move on in life … and they likewise move on in life.
But our life has been forever changed and shaped because of their brief presence. The joy of the good times we had together comes back to mind in future days. Their friendship was special. Our time of working together with them was good.
Just a stop along the way.
Your life is “just a stop along the way” in someone else’s life journey. And they, in turn, are “just a stop along the way” in your life journey.
What kind of an impact are you having?
