Home | Stories | Branches Longing for Birds
Branches Longing for Birds
(YouTube, Pdf can be found below.)
here is a kind of longing that does not chase.
It does not
run or reach.
It simply stretches — quietly, openly
— toward the
possibility of something unseen.
Like branches.
Branches do not grasp the birds.
They do not summon them.
They do not
strategize.
They simply are — unfolded skyward, available, waiting.
And sometimes, when the moment is right,
a bird comes.
Not because the
branch deserved it,
but because the world is full of flight
looking
for a place to land.
To live this way is not weakness.
It is not resignation.
It is the
courage to remain open when the world teaches closure.
The strength to
wait without guarantees.
The faith to ache without turning bitter.
This is the kind of longing that shapes a soul.
Not as absence, but as
invitation.
Not as hunger, but as readiness.
Not as reaching, but as
welcoming.
—William Zeitler
2025 July 12
You’re reading GrailHeart — devoted to what is best about being human.