Birds are marvelous and terrifying.

Since they are just dinosaurs living among us, and because they factor so much in our daily lives, our cities and even our dinner tables, they feel kind of ancient and constant. You think of Van Gogh’s flying black M’s. You think of pigeons in urban spaces, or blackbirds in your yard. You may even be a bird watcher or enthusiast who thinks about birds a lot. But generally speaking, its easy to think of a bird as a part of the landscape––kind of static and unchanging. One bird being very similar to the next.

However, it turns out, the birds are on the move, in this case not through the air, but up the evolutionary ladder. Many birds are very smart, and some of them are so smart they are outstripping most any other animal in terms of intelligence, self-awareness and technological prowess. Some have even suggested that some species of crows have made such use of tools that they COULD be considered to be in their own stone age. There’s a whole academic paper about it!

The upshot of this is all about realizing how evolution is always happening, and how we are missing things if we don’t stop and wonder and the constantly shifting world around us.

Some people have trained birds to steal money––cash and coins!––turning birds into their criminal accomplices! As birds have a stone age, do they also have to start wrestling with morality? Maybe.

Other birds have shown such self-awareness that they have inquired about their color and even names. Should we start introducing ourselves? Maybe we should!

Once I’m done marveling at what birds are capable of, I could always use a friend with wings.

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our creativity and intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**

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Allan T. Georgia, MDiv, MTS, PhD

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