Catholic Masses

  • Search for Mass Times
  • Catholic Faith Articles
    • News Briefs
    • Catholic Church
    • Vatican News
  • Online Masses
    • Daily Catholic Mass Online
      • Daily TV Mass from Toronto
      • EWTN Daily Mass
      • CTVN Daily Mass
      • Sunday Mass by the Passionists
      • Daily Mass (In Spanish)
  • Pray with Us
Home Test page The world and the us are joined,…

The world and the us are joined,…

In 2021, the second full year of the pandemic, I began to go outside more after a year of intense insideness. Like others, I started noticing what I had not known how to see previously: the arching of a tree branch, deep and out toward the Napa River that flowed by my house; how the elderly woman who lived next door called out, by name, to each neighbor passing through; what happened when the late-day sun, symphonic, grew its mustard hues into a golden carriage of light; and how 15 minutes later the sky would go gray.

I began to see more clearly because I began to watch more closely, and of course I noticed the birds. Falcons, hawks, owls, vultures, turkeys, hummingbirds. In the late winter, mother and father made nests; in spring their fledglings took up the sky.

Birds have a kind of mythical quality to them, in that they are able to both fly and walk. They can lift themselves up. I’m jealous. My solid bones protect me from injury, yet they keep me stapled to the ground. I want to be of the air, like a bird.

In Joy Harjo’s poem “Redbird Love,” the speaker, through her own (“we”) perspective, tells the listener of the main events of a bird’s life. In the opening line of the poem, we’re told, “We watched her grow up.” The bird discovers her body: “We watched her strut.” The bird discovers partnership and trust: “We watched him fill his beak.” And the last line is not about the bird, but about the speaker and the listeners, together, and what we realize through this patient, close looking: “We are double-, triple-blessed.”

The pronoun in this continuous refrain is telling us something — the “we” that the speaker intones could refer to a group they belong to, the community that watched this bird come of age. But in the final line, it seems that the “we” is trying to communicate something else entirely: “The sacred world lifts up its head / to notice / we are double-, triple- blessed.”

The “its” and the “we” are noting the same group: There is the world, and then there is us. In this final line, the poem reveals that the world and the us are joined, always, and without effort. This bird, or rather, “bird-girl” we’ve watched go through her life cycles in the poem is also of the world, and we are in the same world, together. To look closely at others is to watch ourselves closely, and what a gift it can be, offering our attention.

The poem begins in the past tense with the word, “watched” and ends in the present by stating we “are” blessed. Telling the story of a life is a strange collapsing of time. There’s an interplay of different experiences of time: The speaker can tell the story of a life in less than two minutes, with 36 lines of poetry. Living a life demands decades, and it is the opposite expression of that poetic experience of time.

The speaker is painting a picture of something we see daily, weekly, if we watch closely: birds eating, building nests and boasting to potential mates. The poem implies: How often do we stop to enjoy the simplicity of these tasks? Can we see that there might be a miracle in this daily living?

My favorite lines of the poem are these four: “In the end / There was only one. / Isn’t that how it is for all of us? / There’s that one you circle back to — for home.” Harjo delicately and skillfully puts these heavier lines in the middle of the poem, to change its tone and signal a shift in perspective. Whereas before, the bird-girl was exploring herself and aging into the world, it’s after these lines that we watch her prepare the world for something or someone else, as others have done for each of us.

“There’s that one you circle back to — for home,” is the line that tells us this is not a bird-poem or a poem solely about aging, living, looking or seeing, but this is a poem about love. About who you go home to. About which people or persons are home to you. We circle back, like a bird in flight, to those with whom we feel double, triple blessed.

I no longer live on the Napa River’s banks; I no longer pause time by looking at the birds on the island. But where I’ve moved to the light still boasts her mustard color, her golden carriage. The sky still goes gray. I’ve traded avian lessons for proximity to friends, family and my romantic partner, who I circle back to, for home.

National Catholic Reporter

Feb 4, 2023CatholicNews

Share this post:

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on PinterestShare on EmailShare on LinkedIn
Pope to South Sudan's clergy: We need courageous souls ready to die for AfricaSalt, Cities, and Disciples
You Might Also Like
 
Catholic priest killed, another kidnapped in attack on Nigerian parish
 
Pope Francis: The Spiritual Exercises deepen the concept of personal reform

You must be logged in to post a comment. - Log in

CatholicNews
1 month ago Catholic NewsNews Briefs7
Find Mass Schedules Near You

CatholicMasses.org allows you to search for Catholic Churches to find Mass times near you!

This unique feature helps while traveling.  Now along with Mass times, schedules and Catholic news you can also watch daily Catholic Mass online with your friends.

Try our free resource to “find Roman Catholic Churches near me” today!

St Alphonsus Liguori praised the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the best way to Honor God.  Join us as we celebrate Mass daily from various parishes around the world, online and offline, and please visit daily to pray with us as we recite the Rosary, offer daily scripture, readings, devotions and Catholic focused news. We bring you daily Catholic Mass from various parishes around the world and Catholic news.

Today’s Mass
Daily Mass Videos
  • Catholic Chicago
  • CatholicTVNetwork Daily Mass
  • Daily Mass from Toronto Canada
  • ETWN Daily Mass
  • Eucaristia en Vivo – Spanish Daily Mass
  • General Catholic Videos
  • Live video from Lourdes France
  • Masses from the Ascension Priests
  • Misa Hoy (en español)
  • National Shrine
  • News from a Catholic Perspective
  • News from CFN
  • Pope Francis and Vatican News
  • Rosary
  • Sunday Mass by the Passionists
What’s New
  • Spanish bishops deliver six volumes of information on sex abuse cases to ombudsman
  • Andrea Bocelli and friends take viewers on a religious and musical pilgrimage
  • U.S. and Canadian bishops join Vatican’s condemnation of colonialist ‘doctrine of discovery’
  • Vatican’s liturgy czar rejects German Church’s plans for laity to preach homilies, conduct baptisms
  • UPDATE: Pope Francis has bronchitis but is resting and improving, Vatican says
About

Providing up to date online access to information exclusively about Catholicism.

Visit our site map | Privacy Policy | About Us Page.

Streaming Catholic Mass Online

Watch Catholic Mass Online Today.

Find Churches Nearby
Email-Subscription

Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news and event postings.

2019 © Catholic Mass Search - Search Catholic Churches and find Mass times while traveling.
Privacy Policy | About Us Page.
Truemag theme by StrictThemes
Change Location
Find awesome listings near you!