A bird flew into my home/studio yesterday. Not that surprising, I guess, it happens in NY now and then…except the little incident was somehow like a dream. It was a little finch (?) sparrow (?) and the window was only a little bit, a very little bit, open. (The loft is not a big veranda with large floor to ceiling windows so it’s not an indoor/outdoor space.) I was over in the music studio nook working, looking the monitor, and talking on the phone, when I noticed the little creature a couple of meters away, very close, and looking at me. We glanced at one another, and then it flew back to the ledge in the “living space” near the open window, hesitated a moment, then flew back out the window. (In my past experiences birds indoors have become trapped, confused, flying against window panes frantically — but this one knew its way out and in a moment it was gone.) How did this one instantly know its exit? It was like a little “Hello, I’m with you, I’m aware of you, you’re O.K.” and then, perfunctorily, gone, goodbye. Isn’t the bird a symbol of the soul in paintings? Is it crazy to project a real event as if it were a dream event?
I immediately thought, what it the symbolism here? Was this a good sign? A visitation? Did I see this? Did it really happen? Is the bird in a house a soul come to say hello? My own soul? Is it good luck? Bad luck? An omen? A message? A messenger? A metaphor? O.K., it might sound crazy to read so much into a random unexpected occurrence — it’s simply an odd NY thing — but the incursion of “nature”, the wild, the beautiful and fragile, into the urban workspace is so unexpected (my loft is 6 flights up.) It did seem like a dream image, a symbolic metaphorical image, come to life.
