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Thanks & gratitude!

Perception and belief. Things may not be as they appear, or as we believe them to be.

For the past week I have admired the woodpecker sitting in the willow tree outside of my dining-room window. The bird seemed to sit there quite often since it always was there whenever I looked out the window.

Today, while looking out the window I tried to point out the bird to my husband. “See, it just moved its head from side to side,” I said.

He assured me that there was no bird in the tree.

I disagreed and attempted to point out the black, white and grey bird sitting in the tree in front of my eyes.

To prove his case, my husband put on his sneakers and started walking out to the tree. He picked up a stick on his way.

I waited for the scared bird to fly away. But nothing. No movement.

He placed the stick on the branch where the bird was supposed to be sitting. He tapped the stick against the branch a few times to prove there was no bird sitting there.

There was no bird. No woodpecker. Ever.

Naturally, a visual error such as this can cause a person to begin to question all sorts of things: What else am I deceiving myself about? What else am I not seeing that is right in front of me? What am I looking at that is an incorrect perception (I recognize this might be arguable here)? How many times has this happened in the past and I never learned the difference? What else do I believe to be true that is not the case? What? So many questions and possibilities.

For now, at least, I have accepted that there was no woodpecker.
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At least that is what I believe.