Yesterday, as I was driving home, I saw my first flock of starlings this fall. They were dancing across the sky, magically swooping and twirling as one single unit.
I’ve always been astounded at how birds do that. I know that geese, flying in formation, take turns as leader, but a flock of birds doesn’t seem to have the same, as they morph into different shapes, and double back again and again, never leaving a single member behind.
When I saw this, I was coming home from a choral rehearsal, and the similarities between the birds acting as one, and the cohesive, yet complex and layered, sound we were creating in the sanctuary as we perfected our pitch, our timing and our dynamics was not lost on me.
The four of us vocalists were being challenged by our director, to try different things each time we ran through the piece, until we collaboratively developed something wonderful.
And when we performed it this morning, I think it was wonderful. We’d taken four single distinct voices and turned them into one, rising and falling with the notes, adding texture and shaping it together as we embodied the message of the song. We did musically, what the (not so musical!) starlings did in the sky.
It got me thinking about the times in our life when we reshape ourselves. There are so many cliches – change is the only constant – to every season… – but it’s true. We turn from children into adults, from singles into couples and from couples into parents. And sometimes we get so caught up in parenthood that we lose the shape of who we are as individuals.
I’m facing a bit of that this fall. While I’m used to being an “empty nester” during the summer months, when my kids all left for camp jobs, for the first time in 24 years there was no child to wish a happy first day of school to in person. And while that’s just as well, as I was out of town on business last week, it was strange to have nobody here when I returned.
September is the “new year” for all the kids going back to school where they get to reshape themselves into whatever their new grade needs them to be, and so I suppose it’s my time to do a little reshaping myself. I just hope it can be as graceful as the birds!
