A dead pigeon! Perhaps the most uninspiring, simply passable, and loathsome event we might have come across myriad times, have we not? Trace back to your timeline, and you will notice that there were plenty of instances from your childhood to this date when you had seen or heard about a dead pigeon, yes? And what was the best out of it that you can remember presently?... That it smelled awfully fetid? Hmm, undisputedly, it did, it always does.  

Nonetheless, lately, I was forced to ruminate over and over emotionally when I encountered one such passable event. And believe me, apart from a stink, it offers almost everything you must incorporate into your lives. 

 Dead Pigeon: Finding Life's Meaning

The Encounter

It was a pleasant sunny morning in early April when me and my wife, as a part of our routine, stepped up to the terrace of our apartment for a workout of maybe half an hour. Shedding our clinging laziness we were just about to finish our last set of stairs and enter the terrace, when, in a room preceding the terrace I saw a familiar bird lying on the floor, and our beaming halted!

That singular, unfortunate bird was a Pigeon! The one of many that constantly kept flying around, the one that almost looked identical to others, the one I would heed hardly at, was there, dead!

The Look

Unlike other dead Pigeons I had seen, this lay down on the floor with its talons pointing straight up toward the sky as if they were too rigid now. Its eyes were nightly dark, arid, and open, but to me, they seemed begging at the sky, too. 

When I scanned its face, the bird appeared as a helpless, unprivileged, and supremely poor creature grumbling in its last moments; saying, "No! This is not how I should die, I, too, deserve a chance like they do".

Its wings however sagged lifelessly, hinting, that they were off the battle now and could not lift the body anymore. Maybe they gave up first when death confronted them. 

The Position

The way that pigeon lay down on the floor seemed an aberrant way of demise for a bird. Deducing the facts, the bird, with all possibilities had no chance to fly down steadily while approaching death. Rather, something must have happened to it in midair that it just flopped off and crashed on its back, without flinching for a second. Not a chance to survive! 

Revisiting 

During the entire workout, I kept pondering the meaning of this event, but then I, a selfish human, rushed down to my home with a sweet pain in my heart. Honestly, I couldn't refrain myself from thinking about the pigeon, and so, after some time I was inclined to revisit the scene. 

I stepped up to that room and realized that the bird was not there anymore! Heavyheartedly, I returned and got myself swamped in the lavishness of my life, and by the evening, my memories of that bird had almost faded. 

The Learning         

The point is, just that morning I realized that we are the only race on the earth that can complain! We are the only race that can ask! That can refute! That can revolt! That can compare! That can protest! That can fight! Even we have a chance to survive, challenging the very rules of nature! And this all while we live, and yet on the deathbed we seek the complaints and not liberation. 

But the birds, they break the shell of life, fly when they are ready (Not too early not too late), eat (Keeping faith in nature that they shall be provided always), reproduce as nature evolves, and one day, succumb to death peacefully. 

That day, the prime values that I could educate myself with from the life of a bird were; submission, alignment, faith, acceptance, and peace. These are the values that, in my opinion, offer balance, harmony, and the actual meaning of life.                                     

That day, the dead bird taught me that whether they are wings or the voice, the proudest of yours is defined to perish. 

That day, I deeply comprehended why peace is felt when you see a bird because they embrace these values to their core and the same they disseminate at us.

That day, this gray pigeon even though it was gone taught me the core meaning of life; 

Your proudest possessions are certain to deceive. Midair or Midlife, you are certain to flop off, Life is all about embracing the peace, and the meaning of the life is opposite of it, the DEATH! Just down try to own it.

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