Old Age Day by Day March 23, 2013

I had my Buddhist study group this morning.  I was telling about taking my granddaughters to an aquarium, and we carefully planned our day around seeing a live albatross in the afternoon.  We got there in time to see well, and my older granddaughter got to be the "assistant", and afterwards my younger went up to the lady in charge and talked about recycling.  We were in awe of the albatross, who was being fed fish from her trainer and sat elegantly on the cart they wheeled out.  She was huge and amazing.  Then a couple of hours later we were with an interpretive specialist looking at things like an otter fur, when she asked us what we'd seen and we began talking about the albatross.  She told us we were lucky, because often she balks at going on display, and she only comes out once or twice a week.  I realized then that I had taken the bird for granted, as if she were some Disney toy, and I now realized her agency, that she had feelings and some power and the trainer was respecting her needs.  I felt a rush of gratitude, because it had not been a given we would see her at two pm, after all, she was not at our beck and call, and we were fortunate that we saw her and she felt like seeing us.  My expectations had not included thinking of the animal or the efforts by trainers and others to protect her rather than entertain us.  She was not without will and we had not valued her effort at all.  But I do now.  Expectations can blind us to what is going on.  I was blessed that the specialist offered such an important lesson to me.