Cowbird Attraction

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I found a site called Cowbird around mid-February. It’s a small community of writers. It’s been an amazing, healing, validating experience. The quality of the writing is quite good but the thing that inspires me and moves me the most is the courage people show in making themselves vulnerable to the group. The sharing comes from a deep place where we are all broken. There’s no “if you think you’ve got it bad wait until you hear this.” There’s a tenderness and respect for everyone who shares. It’s not a confessional site. People don’t respond with advice or judgments.  They show their support by “loving” your post and by continuing to share about their own life. The site accommodates sound and pictures which really enriches the experience and the writers are from all over the world. Another amazing and humbling thing. They write in English as if it was their native tongue which is quite challenging when it comes to poetry, metaphors and imagery.

It’s rare that I let a day go by without getting on the site. The way it is set up you develop an audience by people indicating they would like to know when you post a story. In the same way you become a member of someone else’s audience when you are interested or inspired by their stories. The circle continues to grow. You really do get to know one another by seeing each person’s daily life evolve as they share stories of the present, past or hopes for the future. 

The global perspective is awesome.  For example, the papers were reporting a story about the Occupy people being removed from a park in London. At the same time one of the Cowbirder’s, who lives within sight of what was happening, was posting about what she was seeing.  It validates all that we have in common as humans inhabiting the same planet as we tell our stories and share feelings we all identify with. It also shows us how varied our global cultures are by bringing a wide variety of perspectives to each story shared. Where else could you hear the insides of a tree groan its story, or the sound of ancient working water wheels in Syria or the sound of a child’s laughter on another continent?

It’s not addictive but it is enticing. The feeling of a site visit is similar to going to coffee with friends. There’s an intimacy involved that is so very different from the urgent, thoughtless spewing of too much information we often get from the internet’s social media (although there is a place and benefits from sites like Facebook).

I don’t want to stop my blogging though. It is also fulfilling. It asks me to dig a little deeper, expand my perspective and loosen my control. It seems the old adage of a place for everything is quite true even in this digital age.