How Can This Much Beauty Be Possible?

I woke up to blue skies and a teeny tiny smattering of snow this morning. After what seems like endless days of grey, the light is so welcome.

A couple of weeks ago, as the sun was setting, Ben and I drove to a place not far away from home to see if we could catch the starling murmuration. If you don’t know what a starling murmuration is, you soon will and I promise you’re going to love it.

We arrived a little on the late side and a few cars were already gathered in the lay-by watching the scene. But we caught the most spectacular display and as is so often the case, there aren’t words to describe what one feels at moments like this. For me, there is often a rush of tears. It’s a feeling like, ‘how on earth can this much beauty be possible?’

In making this video, I did a little research into the murmurations and one of the things I loved reading from bird experts was about how they think the starlings do it to protect themselves. They think they do it to keep warm at night and they think they do it to exchange information.

But they don’t know. No one really knows why. And I love that so much. Because it is so wonderful that there are things we can’t quite figure out. It reminds me of something I heard someone say once and I forget the exact words and I forget whether it is a famous quote, but it was something like this:

“As soon as the child learns the word for a bird, they stop seeing the bird.”

To not know keeps our eyes and hearts fresh, letting us experience the raw and mysterious beauty of existence.

The video is imperfect and I wish you could have heard the sound of the wings but it is beautiful nonetheless. If this isn’t something you’ve seen before, or even if it is, I really, really hope you enjoy this and it brings a little something beautiful into your day.

Finally, I’d like to say a big thank you for your beautiful comments and support of the videos I made the last couple of weeks. I so appreciate you watching and your kind words!