The other day I spent a morning sitting by the ocean. What a blessing.

It was another quiet morning with only the sunrise, waves, and birds to keep me company.

As I sat there, I watched something interesting unfold.

On the pier sat a group of seagulls. They were watching another slightly larger bird who was in the water.

All of a sudden, they flew down and were squawking and harassing the swimming bird.

I looked closely and noticed that the swimmer had caught a fish and was having a hard time getting it down. It kept fighting with the fish while it floated on the waves.

I thought it was odd that the bird didn’t fly away.

The gulls kept hovering over the poor bird as if they were eager to swipe its meal away at the first opportunity.

Eventually, the bird swallowed the fish and the gulls returned to the pier.

I kept watching the other bird and still it didn’t fly away.

Instead, it slowly paddled toward shore until it rode the wave in to the beach.

That’s when I noticed it.

The bird was injured. It couldn’t fly. One of its wings was damaged.

Intrigued, I reflected on what I’d just seen.

A gang of healthy, capable birds harassing another who had had a stroke of blessing because of its hard work despite its struggles and disadvantages.

The gulls hadn’t been out fishing for themselves. They were only there to take away from someone else. They were opportunists claiming that they had the right to someone else’s labors.

The animal world can be cruel and merciless.

So can the human world.

However you want interpret it, I know that I was inspired by that poor bird who was striving and struggling. I was glad it caught and was able to keep its fish.

I also would’ve liked to shoot those gulls that were sitting on their butts the whole time until they found the opportunity to start making a bunch of noise in their attempt to take the other bird’s meal away.

That’s just how I felt about it.

It’s interesting what you see when you observe nature.