When you mess with birds…

When you mess with birds, well, you get into a mess.

I’ll start this story at the beginning. I decided to go on a run today. It’s been a couple of weeks. I haven’t been motivated to do so for a variety of reasons, but the weather forecast for later today and the foreseeable future is inferno-like, so I figured I should head out this morning and beat the heat. And… I had a new hat. #motivation

So the reasons to run won out over the reasons not to and I took in the fog and the lake with its feathered friends as I ran alongside.

It was a pleasant run. While I didn’t set any land speed records, I smiled and waved at other runners and walkers. I leaked awesome and it kept me cool. My new hat provided shade. I took my “runfie” for social media and captioned it, “Christening my new hat,” as I poured water on my head. Then I drank the rest of my water and stretched in the shade.

Stretching can include some of my yoga poses, pigeon in particular. It opens the hips and stretches the hip flexor and psoas muscle. It uses the core to keep the hips straight and is a calming pose.

Then I thought it would be funny to do a pigeon pose with the plentiful pigeons along the lake.

I carefully scoured the ground with my eyes, looking for a relatively clean spot in the grass for my pose. As you know, pigeons are not the only feathered friends along the lake; there are hundreds of geese. As much as I love the geese, it is with the understanding that to be with geese, I have to accept their crap. I don’t have to get in it, but it’s there and I have to deal with it. There are lots of ways to deal with crap and in this case, I choose to avoid it.

It occurs to me that my relationship with the geese is no different than my relationship with anyone or anything else. You take the good; you take the bad. Rewards and sacrifices. For better or for worse. Advantages and disadvantages. Every relationship has an opportunity cost. What are you choosing to give up to be in the relationship? The harder you love and the more you invest, the more intense is the pain when the relationship ends, for whatever reason.

So, I found my relatively clean spot in the vicinity of the iridescent pigeons, set up the camera and struck a pose.

Victory! A pigeon decided to walk right into the shot, and while perspective makes him look like some sort of Godzilla bird, it is pretty funny.

I finished stretching and headed back to the car, taking a glimpse in the rear view mirror when I noticed my new hat had been christened in a new way! Quickly I wiped off the bird crap and then the irony of the story unfolded in my head. (I should have taken the photo first).

Good and bad. Rewards and sacrifices. For better, for worse. Advantages and disadvantages. Opportunity cost.

But, my NEW hat????