Recently I was sitting on the bench outside my house watching a real fight in the sky above me.
A buzzard flying high over the tree tops was being ruthlessly attacked by two aggressive crows. Clearly the buzzard had strayed too far down into the crows’ own territory, and despite the difference in size, the crows were having none of it.
It reminded me of the biblical story of David and Goliath.
It also got me thinking about security.
In this case, the crows are very territorial about their hunting ground and “their” space. The intruder threatened all that and the invasion sparked a fierce fight in the skies.
It seems to me that a lot of our security comes from external points – it might be the habits we have in where we park the car, or the order in which we do things daily, or the seat we take in church, on a bus or in a training room....
And when someone else parks in “our” space, or takes “our” seat, well, trust me, neighbour wars are rife and we might feel very out of sorts and almost threatened for quite some time.
The only way I can see that we can ensure we aren’t destabilised when our external securities are upset, is by ensuring we have a flexible enough connection with those elements in our lives, and have built up a good level of inner security for ourselves.
I can certainly vouch for that where I live – I’ve never seen neighbours so engaged in “dog-fights” over the fact that someone has “stolen their parking space in a parking area where spaces are not allocated in any way.
Life events will inevitably throw us off balance at any point, but the more secure we can be within ourselves, the more able we will be to ride through and above those times as we connect to that inner sense of security for ourselves.
And what of the buzzard and the crows? – Well of course the crows re-asserted their right to that territory and the eagle soared away up high to find another space – or return to fight again another day. So was there a “winner” after all? And who is most secure?
