I did what I said I was going to do, well, sort of. I did clean up the kitchen a little, and dusted the furniture in the living room. At least it's a start. While I was dusting, I moved the cage of Patrick, my parotlett. I cleaned his stand, put his cage back on it, and continued dusting. After a few minutes, I noticed that he was looking at me with a strange attitude. It took me a moment, but I finally realized that I had put his cage back on the stand backward. I apologized to him, and promptly turned it around. He looked much more at ease. As a general rule, birds like consistency, and get stressed when the routine patterns are changed. Even a new food or toy can stress them for a while.
The backward cage reminded me that so often I get things almost right, but there's always some little detail that I've overlooked. Usually it's just a minor thing, and I'm being overly critical. But I often have the "Doh!" feeling. I think that's what I like about Zen. There's a parable of a master and student who take their shoes off and put their umbrellas down before entering a house. The student was celebrating moving on from being an apprentice because he had studied with him for so long. After they were settled with their tea, the master casually asked the student which side of his shoes the student had placed the umbrella. The student realized he was not as self-aware as he thought, and studied with the master for seveal years after that. Now, umbrellas and shoes are not critical life choices, but too often we do miss the important details. So, I'll try to be more aware of what I'm doing. And my umbrella is nowhere near my shoes. :)
So, here's my apology to Patrick, and I like the song a lot myself. :)
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