Contentment is Just Around the Corner…

Eastern Screech Owl.  Yes, he looks cranky, but he’s too wise for that.

I blame it all on a screech owl.  One has found a home in the trees outside my bedroom windows and roams the yards nearby.  Throughout the night hear his soft, comforting tremolo call that hardly sounds like a screech.  His call is both romantic and exotic, calming and enchanting.  And it has caused me to think…

Several years ago while enduring a somewhat disappointing stretch of luck I pulled an encouraging fortune from fortune cookie.  It assured me that “Contentment is Just Around the Corner for You.  Look Forward.”  The message felt unusually apt.  I liked it.  Every once in a while a short tip inspires me and this one did.  I have been looking forward ever since, increasingly wondering if I should maybe be looking around some corners instead.

The fortune is taped to my bathroom mirror along with a few other things I don’t want to forget.  Alas, I had forgotten about this promising fortune — it seemed like flat advice after a while — until I heard the owl.

Everything the owl stands for — this sort of wise, romantic calmness, and unperturbed serenity — is indeed contentment, is it not?  Owls are not particularly social animals, but I believe they do travel in pairs and maintain a good home.  Mr. and Mrs. Screech Owl, I presume, even if I shouldn’t presume to know how they feel about such things.  Young owls are left to explore and develop strong egos, too, under the watchful, but not smothering wide eyes of adoring parents.  Isn’t that a great way to live and let live?  Owls don’t even let annoying bands of crows ruffle their well-groomed feathers.

Contentment is something we all seek, I believe, even so-called thrill seekers and risk takers.  It doesn’t matter.  People find contentment in accomplishing their goals and desires.  Comfort isn’t necessarily a large bed and a well-ordered room, although I lean that way.  I simply think it is throwing it all down and deciding what you want and then getting it.

For my part I seek the wisdom of ghostly owls in the night.  I don’t need to be seen, I’m not sure I even need to be heard.  Ultimately to know ones self is the best.  The uncertainty of not knowing is tiresome and delaying.  And fighting battles that need not be fought.  Pish posh!  Cut the delays and move forward.  I will be persistent to be understood and succeed in that.  The rest will fall into place.

Many birds fill the trees in my neighborhood.  They all noisily begin the day with a variety of songs.  It is a bright, encouraging sound.  My owls, if they do call, are drowned out by the others.  Nonetheless, it is hard to imagine that the owls don’t come to the morning without contentment.  It is my goal to greet the morning with contentment; every morning, both good and bad; to awaken with sunshine in my bed, even on gloomy days, and move forward.

Perhaps looking at a fortune stuck on a mirror isn’t as important as just looking in the mirror.  Your thoughts?

Related articles

• Inspiration from a Cookie (evolovevolove.wordpress.com)