Just a Thought…About Bird Walking

Welcome back, Sandi Ben-Dov!

Sandi is a Language Arts teacher who has traveled the country and the world. You may remember her guest blog submission Just a Thought…Running Away or Towards. This time, she shares a commentary on the way we should live our lives, not on how most of us have been living.

Anne Lamott calls our current way of living the “Forward Thrust.” This idea that we must always be pushing upwards towards success. I recently heard an interview with her on public radio and this idea resonated with me deeply because I have been mulling over the statement that I “birdwalk” too much.

Years ago, this was told to me during my last observation for my tenure as a High School English teacher. It was not the first time that an administrator had said this to me, and it hurt me to the core. At first I had no idea of what they meant.

What is wrong with a birdwalk? Why is this deemed a terrible thing? Why not enjoy looking at a bird and following a bird’s path instead of the one that I originally set out on?

I was truly angered and saddened, and puzzled, and it had bothered me for years. Until recently...In Lamott’s interview, she discusses her book, Bird by Bird where she quotes her father telling her younger brother who was in a high state of anxiety and melting down due to a school project, “Bird by bird, Buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

When I heard Lamott discussing this philosophy about anything in life, I became inspired again to listen to my own heart and head resonating with the idea of Bird Walking and the reaction that it ignited years ago and how I feel about it today in our World. Lamott goes on to say that our stories are our stories, and they are important to tell. They transform our lives and if they help someone else along the way then even better.

So here is what my story tells me and hopefully will tell you. To the Administrators in my room, they equated bird walking as too many tangents-not a straight path. To me back then, I equated this idea of tangents and bird walking meaning that I was not forward thrusting my students to success. That at any time in my life whether it be teaching or being a mother or meeting my physical goals, or anything in life…if I was bird walking and not forward thrusting and staying on the perceived path to success then I was a failure.

I internally beat myself up with that idea. It haunted me and even took away joy in the classroom and in my life. I allowed myself to fall prey to this belief instead of taking it “bird by bird” which seems contrary to a bird walk as it is slowing down to focus on one step at a time, but allows for the belief in one’s own path - even one that might wander or follow the flight of a bird, a thought, a backward or lateral movement or a thrust of wings upward or back again to the undergrowth or the sunlit dappled leaves on an early Spring hike.

Even if this meant a slight delay on the journey or a changed destination.

I realized that the bird walks that we take in life are essential in creating a different mentality and a difference in the way that we perceive ourselves and others. It leaves room for connections through shared stories. It leaves room for “otherness” and for the idea that there are ways to reach success that are not the ones taught to us or told to us that follow a straight line.

Many of these are part of a culture that teaches uniformity in thought. Education and many aspects of our world are recognizing that structures are broken, and that people are unhappy. Just think if we stopped forward thrusting as a society and as individuals and chose to bird walk just a little bit more each day.

Instead of considering someone’s tangents a waste of time, we recognized the power of the story and the storyteller. That we go into the idea that there are diverse ways to see the world.

What I have learned is that my bird walks are often the things that tethered my students to larger ideas or inspired them to go down a rabbit hole or on a bird walk of their own. That these bird walks often brought curiosity, joy, and humor into the classroom and into my life outside of school. So, I hope that today, tomorrow, or this week you allow yourself to go on a bird walk. And if someone tells you that you “bird walk” too much, I hope that you feel proud instead of the shame that I felt.…Just a thought.