I was out by the river recently early on a delightful summer day. The trees were lush and green and all was at peace in my world. As I walked along I was ‘followed’ down the river bank by some swans – quietly going about their business of moving from where they had been overnight to some place were I am sure they knew breakfast awaited.
They are truly gracious birds that when all is calm are serene and well composed. As you can see in the picture this fellow was well groomed and certainly seemed at peace in its world. Shortly after i took this picture three of the swans decided they wished to move at a faster pace. After the calm of the previous quarter of an hour they started to flap their wings and run through the water, eventually running on the water with a loud splashing sound and honking noise – then about 100 metres down the river they took flight. Again all graceful as they rose into the morning sky.
This got me thinking about the times that we may seem all at peace only to suddenly wish to change the pace of our day. What impact does this have on those around us? This may be positive as it enthuses others to pick up pace too. It may destroy the tranquillity of a savoured moment. It may make us realise that to achieve some things a fair bit of splashing and noise is appropriate just to get into ‘flight’.
It also struck me that the amount of energy these birds have to use to get from floating on the water to graceful flight must be huge. I also guess when in flight the amount of energy used is far less than the ‘take off’. Now this really struck me for a number of reasons:
- How often do we exert a huge amount of effort only to stop again, the re-energising will take almost the same effort again – so how much energy have you wasted with false starts?
- When we have got our project ‘in flight’ do we keep adjusting our flight path which takes little effort, or do we wait till things are way off course before we have to step in with some big action?
- And do we look composed and graceful when in action or just flustered and flapping wildly?
Much food for thought as I headed home for my breakfast!
My best wishes,
Peter
