Because I Loved

He sat on his bed thinking. Looking out the window. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular. The thoughts were racing and that was all.

He was looking out the window at the sky, trying to capture some gleaming thought to keep his mind from racing. He noticed one of the most beautiful birds he had ever seen in the sky, not to far away. He looked away and down for a moment, and put his hands together. Maybe to pray for a thought. When, like an answer, maybe, a loud piercing noise struck his window.

He was startled, jumped up, and looked quickly out the window. The beautiful bird had struck his window, and was now laying just outside it, it's feet barely twitching. No No.. He thought. It cannot be dead.

His mind was racing, but it was not dead. The bird, though injured by the window, was just alive. He took it in to his house, kept it warm, wrapped it in a blanket and held it. It's so beautiful He thought again. It truly was the most magnificent bird the man had ever seen.

He left to buy a cage for the bird. He knew it could not fly for at least a night, and it needed somewhere to sleep. He returned home with the cage, and put the bird in it. Laying down on it's side, it was still very hurt. He gave it water, and food, and he retired to bed.

He woke in the morning to one of the most beautiful sounds he had ever heard. The bird was singing. He rose and looked at the bird, and it was standing up again. And it was singing a song like nothing he had ever heard before. He smiled immediately, started humming along. He thought perhaps if it is standing, it can fly again. He took the bird in his arms and tried to get it to fly. But, to the man's dismay, the bird fluttered down to the ground and looked up at him. He sighed and put the bird back in it's cage. Looks like your going to be around for a while longer huh?

The bird was soon there for a week. And the more the bird was there, the more the man loved it. He loved waking up to it's wonderful song, he loved holding it. He loved simply standing on his bed and watching it, as beautiful as it was. Soon the man was forgetting the day when he had to let the bird go, and never checked to see if it could fly. He kept telling himself that it still needed to be there, it still needed his care, but he knew he was only kidding himself. The bird was fully healed in a week's time, but the man loved the bird and would not let it go.

Weeks went by, and the man noticed the bird seemed to be staring out the window and flapping it's wings. The bird looked so miserable in the cage, she wanted so badly to fly. But again and again the man told himself The bird cannot fly yet. Besides, is it not safer here? Do I not deserve the birds company, after all I've done for it? But the bird only looked sad. When the man tried to hold it, like he used to, even then the bird was sad. She wanted to fly, she wanted to see the sky, and he knew that. But he insisted on locking the bird away, because he could not be without it.

But one day, as the man tried to watch the bird as he used to, he only saw how sad she was. How much she wanted to fly. The man took the bird out of it's cage, held her, and opened the window. He hesitated Do I not deserve the bird's company? He said again. But he stopped himself. He knew he had to let the bird go. So he opened his arms and the bird flew away, and the man knew he would never see it again. He turned back and cried, and put his pillow to his head. When all of the sudden, he heard one of the most beautiful sounds he had ever heard. He looked to his window, and the bird had returned, and was singing to him. He immediately got up from his bed and went to the window. He watched the bird sing the song, and smiled the whole time. And then the bird flew away again, after giving the man one last song, and that was all there was.

His neighbor came to the door as the bird was flying away, and when the man opened the door, the neighbor asked him "Why are you letting the bird go?" And the man, behind his tears, gave a little smile. He looked out the window at the most beautiful bird he'd ever seen, and said
"Because I love her."