What if I am Wrong?

"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." Wayne Dyer

If you have been reading my stuff long enough, you may know a few things about me already. If not, let me reiterate.

1) I am a bird nerd.

2) I will always see rainbows and shooting stars and think they are magic.

3) I am prone to meaning making, for good or for bad, forever and always.

4) I actually own rose-colored sunglasses.

From Dictionary.com

Yes, I am also highly skeptical and require a lot of evidence to believe in some of the magic that I witness. In truth, I just might be a combination of Pollyanna and Velma from Scooby Doo.

With that level set, I want to tell you a story.

Back in the thick of winter, I was outside daily, shoveling a path to get outside to feed the blue jays in my yard. Yes, other birds can eat here but I have a bond with my blue jay friends. They love peanuts, they are gorgeous birds and they are not shy about asking for what they want. When I open the door to my patio, they are usually waiting for me to put out their daily dose of peanuts. Before I even get out of bed most days, they are yapping away in the trees waiting.

This brings me profound joy. When I am having a bad day, when there is snow for 100 days in a row, even when no one else in my house is happy with me, these blue jays adore me and I love them right back.

I even have a special feeder for the peanuts but I put it away in the winter because it can get squashed by all the heavy snow. In fact, the one I currently have is my third. There was a terrifying incident with the second one that I won’t recap here for the sake of brevity and staying on track. In order to preserve my third feeder, this winter, I fed them on a small outdoor table. I just put out a couple of handfuls each day so this is not a huge lift.

In the thick of winter, I would shovel out to the table, then shovel off the table and throw the peanuts out for the birds.

Actual footage of my small table on the patio from last winter with peanuts on it, freshly shoveled

We had a lot of snow this winter which is why I also shoveled the table off. No one wants soggy peanuts.

On one particular day, I went back to the table and was stopped immediately in my tracks.

There were rocks on my little table! Three of them to be precise. Very mundane, basic, everyday rocks.

Since I had shoveled the table the day before, I knew this was bare the day before. Where did these rocks come from?

My three very basic mundane rocks left on my patio table

I immediately assumed the birds left me the rocks! Is this a normal reaction to finding basic rocks on a table in your yard? I don’t know and I didn’t stop to even think about it. I was ELATED. We have all seen these videos online where the crows leave quarters for people and other assorted things that might be junk to some people. Did you know blue jays and crows are all from the same family of birds called corvids? These are super smart birds and if any bird is going to leave you a present, it’s a member of the corvid family.

Excited, I went in the house and I text a couple of fellow bird nerds and presented my whole case. They supported my theory. And really, as a bird nerd, the idea of getting presents from a bird is next level. I WAS SO HAPPY.

I bet it was a solid three days I was pumped up, walking on sunshine as they say. As Matthew Wilder said, ain’t nothin’ gonna break my stride.

Until I went to feed the birds and I noticed there were rocks in the bottom of my peanut bag.

I normally buy my bird peanuts at the fancy all bird food store but this bag I had gotten from the local feed store. And evidently, their peanuts include some rocks. Basic, everyday rocks, like the ones I had found.

The blue jays did not leave me rocks after all, I simply had rocks mixed in with my peanuts.

Sigh. Even writing this almost 3 months later makes me deflate a little.

But here’s the rose colored glasses on this story…

I keep those three basic boring rocks on my windowsill in my kitchen as a reminder that anything can be magic if you believe in it.

Do I need these blue jays to give me a present?

No. In fact, as previously stated, they already give me so much joy. Their presence is present enough for me.

I love feeding the blue jays and they love hanging out in my yard as a result.

We have an unspoken bond, one that does not require material gifts.

In those few days before I realized that the rocks I had were not from the birds, the energy I felt was palpable.

How can that be wrong?

When my son was a teenager, he used to tell me if I kept wearing my rose-colored glasses, I was going to miss every red flag that came my way.

Did you know that rose-colored sunglasses make it easier to see naturally occuring color in the sky? If there is a little rainbow or colorful cloud, I am going to see it and you are not. Sorry, but it’s true.

So what if I am wrong and I am missing a whole lot of red flags with my prone to magical thinking?

No seriously, I am asking you because I just don’t see a downside. If this way of living makes it so three simple basic rocks can inflate my energy level for days, I don’t care if I am wrong.

What if we all did more of this believing in things if they create tangible shifts in our energy?

We have no trouble believing the worst, what if we tried more believing the best?

Are you familiar with the Pygmalion Effect? In short, this theory asserts when people expect more of us we do better. And conversely, when there are low expectations, we achieve those too.

Or how about talking to plants and watching them thrive and grow better? This is also a part of my life for sure.

My Dad was a huge believer in the power of positive thinking. This was how he got me to ride a bike actually. He made me say over and over again, “I think I can, I think I can,” even after I crashed into a parked car.

And you know what, eventually it worked.

I could beat this concept to death, but you know it is true. It’s really hard to succeed and thrive when you are pouring negativity on a situation.

It reminds me of a little experiment I conducted a few years ago. I was inspired to find and write about the most magical moment of each day for two weeks. No matter what I found or didn’t find, no matter how tired I was at the end of the day. I committed to write about something magic. Do you know that the universe delivered every single day? And on the last day of my experiment, I found an actual magic wand. This is a true story and you can read about it here.

So I guess, I ask what if we all just changed our mindset and thought of all the things that could go right, instead of all the things that might go wrong?

I wonder if we all might find more magic wands, magic rocks and hidden rainbows in the sky. 🌈

There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky, 
And you ask, 
"What if I fall?"Oh, but my darling,What if you fly?
-Erin Hanson, Australian Poet