A MURMURATION OF BIRDS

Thinking about this strange phenomenon this evening, and its lovely name, a "murmuration."  So apt.

Researched it a bit.  We always wonder how they swerve and turn as one.  An example of Group Mind?  Thought transfer?  It turns out that science suggests that when birds form great flocks, it is the slight adjustments made by individual birds that cue the entire flock to adjust and follow.  These happen so quickly that it looks like some kind of unified mind. 

(And I think it still is, in the way that waves upon the ocean are individual, but have impact upon how the ocean looks on the surface)

It got me thinking about all of us and our behavior...how our individual actions can cause waves far beyond ourselves, to the point where the original cause isn't even obvious, only its effect.

And then of course I thought of this poem:

"I want to
think again
of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want
to be improbable
and beautiful and afraid
of nothing as though I had wings."

--Mary Oliver, "Starlings in Winter"

Something to ponder for the art of life.