Page 75 - The Book of Rumi

Two Different Birds Flying Together

physician regularly walked home through a fi eld every evening after he
A had fi nished his house calls. His home lay underneath the path of migra-
tory birds who spanned the sky while they flew to their respective destinations.

He loved birds and often watched them closely when they flew overhead, try-

ing always to observe their migrations.
Late one afternoon, the physician was tired after a long day but insisted
on walking home rather than accepting a ride from a patient’s son. As he
strolled through the green countryside, he caught sight of two birds who

were flying rather low, as if separated from their flock. They looked unusual,
not the common birds who normally flew overhead at this time of year. He

became curious and focused closely on this pair of birds.

They looked odd flying together for sure, because they were two differ-
ent breeds! The physician had never seen anything like it and, after positively
identifying the species, thought the matter through. He wondered to himself,
how is it possible for the heavenly goshawk to fly with the earthbound owl?

Why would a bird who belongs in Paradise accompany a bird who essentially
belongs among the ruins of the earth?
Soon, the birds began to descend, preparing to land not far from where
the physician had stopped to watch them. As they landed and began to hop
toward what might have been a cluster of worms on the ground, the physician
noticed that both birds were limping!
He had wondered how it was possible for two completely dissimilar birds
to become companions, and now he had his answer: they were both lame in
one leg, and that had become their binding factor! The poor goshawk, having
suffered what appeared to have been a nearly fatal injury, had stooped to the
level of the graveyard owl, abandoning his former majesty.

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