While walking around, I watched the crows embark from their nightly roost. I enjoyed how they took up the whole space of the sky. There were so many of them, cawing, leaving collectively and moving collectively to wherever they were going.
I immediately thought of this wonderful quote from adrienne maree brown, the author of Emergent Strategy, a phenomenal, imaginative book about collective change. On page 13, she writes,
“There are examples of emergence everywhere.
“Birds don’t make a plan to migrate, raising resources to fund their way, packing for scarce times, mapping out their pit stops. They feel a call in their bodies that they must go, and they follow it, responding to each other, each bringing their adaptations.
“There is an art to flocking: staying separate enough not to crowd each other, aligned enough to maintain a shared direction, and cohesive enough to always move towards each other. (Responding to destiny together). Destiny is a calling that creates a beautify journey.
“Emergence is beyond what the sum of its parts could even imagine.
“A group of caterpillars or nymphs might not see flight in their future, but it’s inevitable.
“It’s destiny.”
As I continued to walk outside, I saw cars moving around town, driven by their people, and I wondered, do we feel connected to one another? I saw students walking around, listening to music on their own phones as I also do so often, and I wondered, do we feel connected to one another?
I thought about several community efforts to keep people safe in winter weather. Some truly work to survive in weather like this. I wonder, do we feel connected to one another?
It’s good to keep pondering and strengthening those connections. The crows were a good reminder.
Smuggling Grace 