A Spiritual Address by Martin J Smith.
I was recently reminded of a story about a young girl who used to spend her school holidays with her grandparents. They lived on a smallholding near the sea, at the top of some cliffs, where they kept a few sheep, goats, chickens and other animals, as well as growing some of their own food.
During her visits, the girl loved to go walking. One day, as she made her way down some steps towards the beach, she noticed an egg nestled safely in the sand. It appeared to have fallen from a nest further up the cliff, yet somehow it had remained unbroken.
Sea eagles nested around the cliffs, and she would often see them circling overhead. She knew that if she left the egg where it was, it might be broken or eaten by a predator, so she decided to take it back to her grandparents’ smallholding.
In a moment of inspiration, she placed the egg amongst the chickens, hoping that perhaps one of the hens might adopt it.
And that is exactly what happened.
The Eagle Who Thought It Was a Chicken
Eventually the egg hatched, and a fluffy young sea eagle emerged into a world of chickens.
Naturally, the eagle assumed that the hen was its mother and that it too must be a chicken. So it lived as the chickens lived. It pecked at the grain, scratched around on the ground and fluttered about amongst the flock.
Yet sometimes it would look upwards and see the magnificent sea eagles soaring high above.
Something within it seemed to say, there must be more to life than this. I feel as though I am meant for something more.
But, as far as it knew, it was only a chicken.
If you can imagine chickens talking to one another, perhaps the other chickens would have told it, “Don’t be silly. You’re a chicken. You make chicken noises. You belong down here with us.”
And so the sea eagle lived out its life amongst the chickens, never discovering its true potential.
There are times when I think we can be rather like that eagle.
Recognising the Light Within Us
There is a power and a light within us. We might say that we know it is there, but saying the words is not necessarily the same as truly believing them.
Words on their own can be empty. It is the belief and feeling behind those words that gives them their strength.
Sometimes we go from one day to another caught up in anxiety, worries and distractions. Those things can prevent us from becoming aware of who we really are.
Like the sea eagle raised as a chicken, we can become conditioned by our surroundings and experiences. We accept ideas about who we are, what we should believe and what we are capable of.
But are those ideas necessarily true?
Are We Thinking for Ourselves?
Earlier, I was watching some of the football between Manchester United and Manchester City. You have the red half and the blue half, each passionate about their team.
Yet what really separates them?
In many cases, people support a particular team because their parents did, because their friends did, or simply because that was the environment in which they grew up. Over time, it becomes part of their identity.
It is a simple example of how easily we can be conditioned.
Our lives are full of things that can divide and distract us. If we are not careful, those distractions can stop us from asking deeper questions about ourselves.
Do we still think for ourselves?
And when I talk about thinking for ourselves, I also mean allowing ourselves to connect with something deeper. You might even describe it as connecting to “God’s Wi-Fi”.
Recently, I was having a conversation with someone who had a slightly different viewpoint from mine. To support their position, they took out their phone, searched for the answer and said, “Look, there you go. That’s what it says.”
There is a danger in allowing something else to do all our thinking for us.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, that becomes even more important. We can ask a machine a question and receive an answer almost immediately. But that does not remove our responsibility to question, reflect and decide what we ourselves believe.
Spiritual understanding cannot simply be handed to us by a search engine, a phone or an artificial intelligence system.
Sometimes we need to create enough space to discover things for ourselves.
Creating Space for Spirit
Space is a wonderful thing because it allows inspiration to enter.
Perhaps you have experienced a moment when somebody suddenly comes into your thoughts. You realise that you have not heard from them for some time, and shortly afterwards you see them or the telephone rings.
We might describe that as having “linked in”.
But very often our lives are simply too busy to notice those moments.
We have phones, tablets, televisions and endless demands upon our attention. There is always something else to look at, listen to or think about.
We rarely give ourselves permission to do nothing.
Yet doing nothing can sometimes be a wonderful thing.
The Fallow Field
Think about a farmer’s field that has been left fallow.
At first glance, you might say that nothing is happening. But the field is not useless and it is not inactive. It is resting, recovering and waiting for what comes next.
I think there is something important for us in that image.
When we sit quietly, we are not necessarily doing nothing. We can be creating the space for communication with God, with Spirit and with that deeper essence of who we really are.
The difficulty is that even when we decide to sit quietly for ten minutes, thoughts immediately begin to arrive.
What are we having for dinner?
What should I have done today?
What have I forgotten?
Before we know it, the space has been filled again.
There was perhaps a time when a journey on a bus or train meant looking out of the window and simply observing the world passing by. We might drift into contemplation or daydreaming.
Those quiet moments matter.
In my opinion, imagination and daydreaming can help to form that link with something beyond our everyday conscious thoughts. Others may experience that connection differently, of course, but the important thing is to find the space in which we can become aware.
Becoming the Observer
We can also learn to observe ourselves.
What do I actually feel about this?
Why am I doing this?
Why am I reacting in this way?
Why has something somebody said upset me so much?
Instead of simply reacting, we can observe the reaction and ask where it comes from.
Through that observation, we begin to develop awareness. We become conscious not simply of the thoughts passing through our minds, but of the deeper consciousness that sits behind them.
And perhaps that brings us back to the sea eagle.
It spent its life believing it was something far smaller than it really was because everything around it reinforced that belief.
How often might we do the same?
Allow Space for What Comes Next
Remember the farmer’s field left fallow.
It is not doing nothing. It is preparing and waiting for what comes next.
Perhaps we all need to allow a little more fallow space into our lives.
Put down the phone. Turn off the television. Allow the noise to settle for a while. Instead of immediately searching for somebody else’s answer, ask yourself what you feel and what you believe.
And when you create that space, do so with an open and powerful heart. Go beyond superficial thoughts and discover the belief that lies underneath them.
Because, like the eagle who believed it was a chicken, we may be capable of far more than the lives we have become accustomed to living.
I’ll leave you with the sentiment of the Persian poet Hafiz, which Martin shared at the end of his address: if only we could recognise, particularly in our darkest and loneliest moments, the extraordinary power that already exists within our own being.
Sometimes we simply need enough space to discover it.
This article was drafted using Chat GPT AI from a transcript of the medium’s spiritual address during our Divine Service. Edited by humans. Featured image by Chat GPT.
