A Meditation on Love. And Parakeets
Many years ago, I went through a difficult breakup. You may have experienced the same. And I thought, Woe is me. Now I have no one to love…me. It took me a while to realize that I had it backwards. We are all so full of the capacity to love; and I have come to believe that we are put on this earth, and are happiest, when we love someone; something else.
In his book Being Mortal, the author/surgeon Atul Gawande writes about a young physician put in charge of a nursing home. What the young doc saw there disturbed him: many of the elderly were physically healthy, but they were lonely, bored, and depressed. Their worldview was looking…inward.
The young doc immediately ordered a hundred parakeets. And this…changed…everything:
Bird songs and chatter filled the rooms. The birds’ personalities began to be revealed: this parakeet is most joyful in the morning; that parakeet always looks unkempt but is popular with the ladies. The old folks attended to these small, lively birds. Their eyes opened again. And, for many of them, they lived longer, and more importantly, happier lives.
