Why Peacocks Honk

One morning a pair of peacocks showed up at our back door and adopted us. We have no idea where they came from. They were a mated pair, a peacock and peahen, and they roamed the neighborhood together. We named them Alan and Dee.
The two were never more than a few feet apart. They were quiet, curious, and gorgeous to behold. So we just decided to enjoy them.
One afternoon I walked out onto the patio and startled peahen Dee. Flustered, she flew to the other side of the house, out of peacock Alan's sight. Suddenly she began to honk vociferously, and the other bird responded. Separated, the two tried to locate each other by calling to each other repeatedly.
The honking went on for about 20 minutes until Dee found her way around the back of the house and the two had a glorious reunion. It was touching, I tell you -- far better than Jerry Springer. Reunited, the couple spends their days with Alan displaying his feathers and Dee picking bugs off him.
I have taken lots of relationship seminars and dealt with lots of relationship questions and issues in my seminars and my life. But none ever as great as those two birds taught me. Their natural state, you see, was togetherness, or intimacy. When they got separated, the honking began. They were calling to their beloved.
When you feel lonely, separate, or outside of love, your pain and what you do in pain is your honk to be reunited with your beloved. A Course in Miracles tells us that every act is an expression of love or a call for love. What we do from joy expresses love; what we do from fear calls for love.
If you are hopelessly (or hopefully) romantic, you will interpret this story as a metaphor for your search for your beloved. And it is so. But there is more:
We have all been separated from God, or ourselves. Not really separate, but we feel that way. All of our searching and reaching out is our honking to be reunited. It's that simple. Put your notebook down, Sigmund. We just want to go home, and until we get there, we will keep honking.
February is the month for lovers. If you have a Valentine, honk to get a little closer. If you don't have one, honk to get a little closer to yourself. Fall in love with yourself, and you become irresistible to others. If you can't love the one you're with, be the one you love. If you decide to love who you are right where you are, you will be with the world's greatest lover.
--Alan Cohen