Gull in Glory! Happy Sunday!I

Herring Gull, Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine

“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus

I will admit to having a prejudice when it comes to Herring Gulls. Their behavior makes them hard to love. They are bullies: aggressive egg and chick eating, catch stealing, beach hogging, bullies. And yet I have to remind myself that their “bulliness” is in my eye as much, maybe more than, in their nature. They are what they are. They do what they do to survive, as any creature must. In order to see their beauty, I have to be unusually generous of eye. I have to withhold judgement, especially judgement by my own, very human, standards. And, really, withholding is not enough. To be truly generous I need to bypass judgement at its root…to see them, not with my human eye, but with the eye of the spirit…the creative eye of the creator who creates with love.

This image, taken along the Mousam River in Kennebunk, helps. The gull was standing on a snow covered rock in mid-stream, while the rushing rapids behind him threw sparkling droplets into the air. It is certainly the bird in all its glory, and I am just generous enough to see the beauty.

May the Good God grant us all, somewhere in our lives, such a rock to stand on…that even the least generous might sometimes see our beauty. Happy Sunday!

One Comment

  1. Reply
    admin January 10, 2016

    I rarely get political, but I have exactly the same problem with Donald Trump, at least with Donald Trump as a potential US president. I am sorry to say that I see him as an aggressive, egg and chick eating, catch stealing, beach hogging bully. And that is not generous. He must have his own rock in the stream. I only pray, for the sake of us all, that his rock is not the steps of the White House. 🙂

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