Unexpected Spontaneous Sweetness

When I live spontaneously I open to being touched by unexpected sweetness! On my way back to Sausalito after teaching tai chi in Berkeley today, I made a spur of the moment decision to take myself out to lunch. I turned off the freeway and headed up the hill to a favorite restaurant of mine. Just as I parked, my daughter called and I asked her to join me. She hopped in her car and came over. After lunch we decided to take a walk at the Berkeley Marina and then go to a movie. She is on vacation and I was very happy to spend the day with her in spite of work I had planned on doing. As we were walking, we noticed a woman looking at a small bird sitting still on the path. She was on the phone calling the wildlife protection services. She told us she had to leave but she was expecting someone to come and rescue the little bird. Ali and I told her we would sit with the bird and wait. We sat down along side the little creature who seemed fine, but was not moving much, which is unusual for a wild bird. Within a minute or so, as we sat there talking to it, it hopped over to me and nestled in under my crossed leg. I was so touched by the sweetness of this little bird's trust, I was filled with inner joy. Within another few moments the little bird attempted to fly off. It landed about 100 feet away in another slightly vulnerable looking spot. Ali and I went ran over and again sat down nearby enjoying the unusual behavior of this bird. It seemed to understand as we spoke soothing words to it and started chirping back at us. Then it raised up again on it's two little legs, hopped over onto my hand and sat confidently looking around. Again after a few moments, it attempted another flight. This time it flew several hundred feet into the parking lot of a hotel. This will never do, we thought. Although it could fly, it wasn't flying very far and seemed to be slightly tilted to one side. We figured something might be wrong with a wing. This time we picked it up into our hands. I got to experience something I've been saying to my tai chi students for years, describing how to make a fist in the tai chi punches. "Make a fist as if there were a small bird in your hand. You don't want to hurt the bird, and you don't want it to fly away." We took our little friend and put it in a box with a towel. We left it tucked away in this opened box protected from the wind, near the spot we found it. We were hoping it's mom and dad would come and feed it while we took our walk. When we came back it was still in the box and seemed a bit weaker. When I came back later that evening to check, the little bird had flown in spirit and left it's body. I felt so blessed to have come across this little bundle of love who awakened such delight in me. I'm so grateful for the afternoon of unexpected, spontaneous sweetness. As sad as I was to see it was no longer alive, something in me knew it was all as it should be.