I was sitting at my computer working on emails when I heard the scuff, scuff, scuff of nails on the plastic mat under my chair.  I hear a “hellooooo” coming from the general vicinity of my feet.  I look down to see a little grey head staring up at me.  Once Philip mastered his ladder, he made good use of it to help himself to his favorite spot in the whole apartment.   The office.  There was no better place to be than perched on the back of my chair. 

But it wasn’t always that way. 

When I first brought him home, the office was his least favorite room.  He would tolerate sitting on a perch I had set up on the opposite end from my desk. But if I tried to bring him over to my chair, he would get antsy and fussy and make my life miserable until I took him back to his cage.  That was really a bummer because I spent a lot of time in my office.  For a while, I took my laptop out to the dining room and worked at my table.  But that wasn’t practical; especially given the fact that my dining room table was the size of a postage stamp. 

Then it dawned on me.  Duh.  The land. 

I had already done a fair amount of spiritual cleansing in the apartment but the office had been a sticky wicket.  My bedroom was in there originally, but I moved it because I couldn’t sleep.  There was a lot of emotional “static” that wafted into the room from the path that ran between the apartment buildings.  And, upon further investigation, I discovered there was a big ole ley line that ran into the room – right through my desk and chair.  Hmmmm.  My bird has better discernment that I do! 

And that is one of the things I find fascinating about nature.  We, as humans, have been given a unique spirit and the greatest capacity for engaging with the spiritual realm.  Yet, the animal kingdom is quite sensitive to their surroundings, often more so than we are because we have dulled our own discernment.  Even plants and trees respond to spiritual dynamics.  There is so much you can learn about the spiritual realm by observing nature. 

So, I set to work on my office.  I hacked and wacked and cleaned and cleansed and blessed and established more boundaries than surround Fort Knox.  One of the fun things about ley lines is that you can send your blessings downstream from your location, which I was delighted to do for the benefit of my neighbors.  The room was in much better condition than when I had started, but the real test was Philip’s response. 

Well … let me put it this way.  He liked the room so much that he wanted to sit on my chair, even if I wasn’t in it!  Many times I would get up to do some work around the house and offer to take him with me.  He would just look at me. I would leave for a half hour or so and come back and ask if he wanted to come.  Umm, no.  A third time … I could see it in his eyes.  “Woman, would you leave me alone already?!”  Sometimes he would spend a whole afternoon in there, perfectly content.  What a difference!

We spent a LOT of time together in the office.  That’s where he would get in a cuddly mood and want me to scratch his head.  Or he would get playful and want me to roughhouse with him … carefully. Nothing like playing with something that is sharp on three out of four ends.  Occasionally he would get bored and make such a nuisance of himself that I would deposit him back on the floor to go exploring.  There were a lot of good times in there. 

But the thing that I find more intriguing than the shift in his response to the room is the fact that it was portable.  The emotional imprint carried over from the apartment to my new house in South Carolina.   

A move is a draining experience for everyone and especially for birds.  Because they are prey animals, any new or changed environment poses a new set of dangers.  So, you can imagine what it is like for a bird to get completely transplanted like he was. 

Yet, there was this little microcosm of my desk and desk chair that was immediately safe and comfortable for him.  And it wasn’t that his discernment of land had disappeared.  In fact, in the new house, it was the dining room that he didn’t like.  Come to find out there is a huge sound portal inside and an earth gate outside.  Incidentally, that is also where the tree fell!   My new office seemed pretty clean from the get-go, but I think we brought some of our own environment with us. 

And to me, that is a reminder of what we were designed to be as stewards of God’s creation.  We have an impact on our environment, whether we know it or not, but we have the potential to increase that influence greatly through blessing of presence.  The microcosm that I created in my office carried over to an entirely new place.  It was strong enough to override any other emotional imprint that was already in that room.  What kind of environment do we create by our presence, even before we lift a finger to do anything? 

Philip and the office will always be a special reminder of the kind of influence we can have on God’s creation.  And if I ever have reason to doubt that Philip knows what he is saying, I know one thing for sure.  When he says “wanna go in the office?” he means it!