I have come back to the little hollow by the stream today. It was a lovely spot yesterday, and today I think it will be just as good. The late afternoon sun breaking in through the canopy of trees gives the area a warm glow. The little brook churns softly through all the stones and other articles people have tossed in it over time. All in all, it was rather relaxing, and I have grown to like such spots.

This time when I came in, I picked up the two feathers I saw on the ground yesterday. They are the small feathers of a blue jay, I think. A deep blue on one side of the bone, with small black stripes along it. The other side being a deep black and the very tip a pure white. They are both interesting feathers.

Yesterday while here, I saw the both of them in the dirt path that leads into this place, but instead of looking at them closer, I dismissed them for they seemed too dirty and not worth even the effort of retrieving them. Prejudice. Plain and simple prejudice.

Yet now that I have gathered both and taken the short time to cleanse them of the small particles of dirt they had picked up, I can clearly see they are worth the minute or two it took me to do so. Why did I decide not to do so before? Laziness? The thought that they could not possibly be something special, so why bother? Probably both, now that I think about it.

As it turns out, one was more ragged then the other, but its markings of black on blue was much more vibrant and distinctive. It was a little bit longer and thinner then the other one, and the colors were very pleasing to my eyes.

The other ended up much cleaner and smoother, with a luster and shine to it that almost sparkled. However, its stripes were simply not as distinctive as the other. It had an elegance to it that the other more ragged one lacked.

I quickly and easily decided that I liked both feathers and was most fortunate to have found them. Which then made me think back to why I had left them behind me yesterday. Stupidity maybe? My ego deciding that they were not `good' enough for me before I even investigated further? Maybe I saw what they appeared to be on the very surface of their identities but simply judged them like someone who glances once and decides without digging beneath the painfully obvious.

As I look upon the experience now, if I had done any less then take the both of them, it would have been a loss. By taking none, like I did yesterday, I did not get to enjoy either of them for just what they are. And if I had only picked up one, I would probably have been disappointed in the way that particular one had looked, thinking it either too shabby and ragged, or too ordinary and bland.

Only by looking at the both of the feathers did I see the good points of each one, and therefore, was able to enjoy both of them for their own special qualities. And only by overcoming my first judgement of their worth was I able to see anything at all `positive' about them.

It seems odd how much our own minds can sometimes hold us back. And if our own inner thoughts are restricting us, how can we ever hope to be `free'?

After all, freedom is a state of mind. Well, more then that, a state of being. Freedom is the following of one's heart, one's inner feelings. We live our lives feeling this way and that way. And no one can ever take the way we feel away. But they can and do try to make us think we are wrong for those feelings, those instincts. What is worse is that after a while, we've heard all those voices just over our shoulder for so long, that we start to do it to ourselves.

I remember the first time I looked down and spied the first feather. My immediate response was, `Hey look, a feather! Grab it! Let's see what it is.' Then my mind took over, `Wait, it's dirty, it's probably been here a long time and is nothing good anymore. Why bother?' I talked myself out of picking it up. My mind stopped the initial response of my heart. And I let it happen.

Maybe we watch ourselves too often. Maybe we think just too much for our own health. Then again, maybe if we didn't, there would be a lot more horror in the world, considering the nature of mankind. I only wish I knew the answer to that.

Well, at least the two feathers were nice.