When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird September 11, 2021 – Posted in: Writer

Summer finally arrived in the Norfolk countryside during the second week of September. After an exceptionally cool and grey couple of months, it took many of us by surprise. 

I welcomed the warm sunshine with open arms and grabbed the opportunity to – at last – pull out a summer dress from the back of the wardrobe, shake out my shorts and head for the dusty sun lounger. 

The unexpected warm weather came with an extremely short “use by” date so I decided to make the most of each moment by dropping all indoor obligations, opting instead to make the absolute most of soaking up a last surge of Vitamin D.  

I rolled up my yoga mat and headed outside for the new season of online sessions with the wonderful Petra www.yoga-marbella.com.  Both the slow flow and Yin classes were simply glorious – I was immersed in the yoga experience surrounded by the natural world interrupted only by the gentle sound of bird song.

Carolina pigeon – plate from Birds of America

In our Yin Yoga practice, where poses are held for up to three minutes, Petra talks to “trick our mind”. I could hear her voice – as if from a great distance: “When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird”.

It wasn’t the first time that she had used this quote and I had always assumed that it came from an ancient yogic text. I took it to mean that we should be in tune with our bodies. That only we know the true effect of a pose. As every body is different, the theory of its benefits and how it feels might not be our own reality.  Whenever this disagreement happens, we should trust the body and our instincts – the bird – and not whatever might be written in the manual. 

Portrait of Audubon by John Syme 1826

It was later – when I reflected on the practice – that the bird and the book kept flitting across my mind. I had to find out who was the source of such wisdom. A straightforward Google journey directed me, not as I had expected, to the Yoga Sutras; but instead to the American ornithologist and painter, John James Audubon.

An American flamingo by Audubon (Brooklyn Museum)

Between 1827 and 1839 this great naturalist produced The Birds of America – one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. Even though the skill of his detailed illustrations is still recognised today and his name lives on in towns, neighbourhoods and streets throughout the United States, as a true lover of the natural world he never underestimated the power of Nature.

Audubon was a painter who was guided by the science.  Although his legacy is one of the greatest books of colour plates of birds ever produced, he also recognised human fallibility while respecting Nature. 

The circumstances that occurred for him to say the now famous words are not clear.  At the time, did he realise his message carried a myriad of interpretations far deeper than the world or ornithology? We don’t know.

But what we do know is that “When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird” is a wise and wonderful quotation that freshly resonates with all of us today.