We sometimes take a walk through a neighborhood close to ours that sits around a little lake. The lake has a small population of mallards, herons and egrets. I never fail to think how those birds have a great life - there is no competition for resources and no animals around that could prey on them. There is a abundance of fish in the lake, the trees and bushes all around it make for a cozy habitat. The people and their houses are set away from the lake by a good distance separated by woods. There are no benches for people to sit around by the lake - which based on your perspective is a good or bad thing. There are walkers (like us) and some runners that do their laps around the water.
This is never a busy place and the you can almost always expect total silence except for the sound of the birds. Last time we were there it was on Halloween so the neighborhood was a hive of activity with trick-or-treaters doing their rounds accompanied by groups of adults. Back at the lake nothing had changed. If anything it was quieter and emptier - we were the only ones taking a walk. I noticed a pair of mallards in the water, forming a V as they went from one edge of the lake to the other. They maintained a consistent distance between themselves - the male leading, the female following close behind. The V in the water reflected their perfectly synchronized movement.
I took pause to observe and thought about how they had created beauty just by being and moving - acts of living, nothing more. It made me think if we as humans could ever achieve that state - what might it take for me (for instance) to create observable beauty in the world by simply being and moving. I could not come up with anything. It seemed like that was a gift reserved only the very young - a baby could certainly create beauty just by being.
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