What I Learnt From Comical Koffee, the Kite!

By Niggy

It was a pleasant Friday morning. I was enjoying a nice cup of coffee with my brother Dolcy. The view through the window was fantastic, with a huge tree outside. I could spot morning walkers taking their dogs out for a walk—or was it the other way around?

Suddenly, I saw a pretty kite flying low and then settling down on a branch of the tree that faced the window. The bird was a beautiful brown, with a biscuit-sort of patch on its chest. It was munching something, happily I presume. I was instinctively attracted to the bird and tried to observe it attentively. I noticed how slowly it ate, and also how peacefully. An amazing sense of peace swept into my heart as I kept watching it. I named the kite ‘Koffee’!

After it had eaten, Koffee looked up and seemed to be enjoying the cool early morning breeze. The leaves on the branches swayed, sort of fanning it.

What a superb focus Koffee had! It simply did not move its head to either side, but kept looking straight, as if it was meditating! I felt it was thanking God in its own sweet way!

I was eager to give Koffee some food. So, first I got a biscuit and placed it on the window ledge for it. Later, I felt something more natural, like a fig, might be good for Koffee. I kept the fig on the ledge and tried to draw Koffee’s attention to it. But Koffee was just too focused. It refused to look at me or the biscuit or the fig! I was awestruck by its sense of one -pointedness!

Koffee sat on the branch for almost an hour, in the same position, looking straight! I realized how much I had to learn from Koffee. First was its peaceful style of eating its food. Second, its silent and settled position on the branch, which symbolized for me being contented with life. Third, Koffee did not distract itself even while I was trying to draw its attention towards me and the fig that I had laid out for it to eat. In contrast, how easily I get distracted by things, events and mundane activities happening around me, forgetting the actual goal of living for the higher spiritual purpose of connecting to God.

After an hour, I saw that Koffee had flown away. I had hoped it would pick up the fig but it hadn’t. Silly me, perhaps: Maybe kites don’t eat figs!

Koffee was so uncluttered! No baggage, no anxiety—it seemed to live its life utterly naturally. Its meditative posture on the branch left a deep impression on my heart and reminded me that submitting oneself to the will of God is the only way to feel peaceful and contented.

What made me like Koffee even more was that he had a comical aura around him! An important lesson we can learn from Koffee is not to take ourselves too seriously. Doing away with the feeling of self-importance, learning to laugh at ourselves or simply dissolving the thought that we are indispensable can make life lighter and joyful for us.

All of us humans have to perform the roles that God has given us on this earth, but at the same time, like Koffee, the beautiful kite, we can still be calm and meditative and enjoy what life offers us, knowing well that God is holding our hand, just like God was protecting Koffee in the cool morning breeze!