You know there are a great many sparrows in a tree when your view of the tree itself has been almost completely obscured by the birds.
There are three ways to see these birds as they leave the tree in the morning, a single entity swirling up and away, as if together they made a rippling embroidered cloak worn by the night as it turns on its heels and marches away.
The first way is to be hardly aware of them at all, wrapped up in whatever it is you’re doing, or give them a sideways glance.
The second way is to see them, finding your attention momentarily captured by a spark of wonderment before your attention shifts away.
The third way is to be transformed by this thing you are witnessing, pulled by your transfixed gaze from your own body for a moment, a part of you taking to the air in the same way the birds do, following them with your close attention until the last black speck has vanished altogether.
C.M. Rivers 