I’ve been browsing the photos at Flickr the past few days, looking for some bright, cheerful images to counteract the dark and somber ones of the future that have been haunting my mind lately. birdyboo’s pictures of geese were more than I had hoped for. I had an “aha” moment when I read her comment that waterfowl spend a lot of time preening, keeping their feathers in top condition. Of course! That’s just what I need to do, spend more time preening my thoughts. When waterfowl preen they remove parasites and clean, waterproof, and smooth their feathers. What I need to do is to go through my mind and clean out the old garbage and the fearful thoughts that sap my energy. And I need to notice inner conflicts and resolve them so they don’t keep me from doing what I want to do.
When I was a kid a favorite saying was “He/she doesn’t have the sense that God gave the goose.” Well, the new year is coming and my 2008 resolution is to keep birdyboo’s geese in mind. I plan to spend more time preening my mind. In other words, I plan to start having the sense that God gave the goose.
What about you? How much time do you spend preening? Please share your thoughts and experience in the comment section.
Pictures (1, 2, and 3) by birdyboo at Flickr. Used with permission. All rights reserved by owner. Thank you!
Thanks to Robert, Joanna, and Shirley for commenting on the last post.
Jean, what a glorious combination of words and pictures here. Thank you (and birdyboo).
For me the word ‘preening’ tends to have negative consequences, but you have cast it in a new light for me here, with the reminder to take due care and attention with our thoughts – so we can become as magnificent as that goose.
I learned another way of taking care of my thoughts this week, from a post written at Joyful Jubilant Learning. In a piece about you being the director of your own movie
http://www.joyfuljubilantlearning.com/joyful_jubilant_learning/2007/12/coaching-perman.html
Sandra introduced me to the idea of being able to set the light. It’s a very simple concept, and one that I can easily remember to do. If things get a little too dark, just adjust the dial to let in more light.
Thanks for shining some into my Sunday morning 🙂
Joanna
Joanna,
🙂 Thanks for the encouraging words. Your comment about adjusting the light sounds similar to the NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) work with submodalities. For me just turning up the light a bit on a dark scene isn’t enough. Changing the image slightly, say by adding a bright candle, would be more powerful. But at the moment switching the image to a goose in a pool on a sunny day, preening her feathers, with the dark thoughts as parasites or dirt works even better for me.
I’m expecting the pictures in my next post here and at Cheerful Monk to be candles radiating in the darkness. But I needed to take that sunny vacation first.
Thanks for coming by!
Hi Jean – I think my act of preening is meditation. I try to do it every morning before I start my day, as an act of rebooting my mind and starting clean, fresh, and centered.
I say “try” because sometimes I’m so anxious to start my day that I zip through meditation and don’t get to clear the mind as I should (which particularly have been happening lately). Your post reminded me of why I even meditate to begin with and I’ll be more mindful of it now. Thank you!
Al,
Thank you for coming by and sharing. 🙂
Nice post and photographs…myself don’t have any habits in specific but everyday morning i used to clean my home its also like one of the exercise…
annie,
I can see that if you clean mindfully it would be like a yoga exercise. Thanks for coming by. 🙂
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Hi Jean – love the pictures!
Geese always make me miss my dad. He and his wife raise show geese and go to fairs and shows across the country. (Or at least they did before his wife got so sick).
Seeing that beautiful white goose made me laugh as I recall how my father would talk for hours about the birds, their habits, how individual their personalities are and so on.
I agree about the habit of preening your thoughts – that’s a great idea. I’m sure whenever I see a goose doing some cleaning, I’ll be thinking about that too. :0)
Shirley,
I think that’s great that your father is so interested in his birds. I feel that way about dogs I’ve worked with over at the animal shelter. It warms my heart to think of them. Thanks for coming by. 🙂
I thank GOD just for awakening me this morning
Robin
Robin,
Thanks for coming by. I’m a great believer in gratitude, too.