Circa – 2013 – A photo – frozen in my memory – Birdman
Birdman - in the moment - footsteps of the Notre Dame - April 2013
This moment was such an unexpected gift. I caught this brilliant man feeding the birds in his own quiet, instinctive way—completely unbothered by the world around him, unaware of anyone watching. I’m not sure why it struck me so deeply back in 2013, during my first return to Paris, but it did. Maybe it was the setting, standing again before Notre‑Dame. Maybe it was the simplicity of the gesture. Later that same day, I wandered into the coronation of an archbishop. Paris has a way of folding the extraordinary into the everyday, and this image remains one of the purest privileges I’ve ever been able to witness and capture.
It always brings to mind a passage from Marcus Aurelius:
At dawn, when you struggle to rise, remind yourself: you were made to work as a human being. What is there to complain about if you’re doing what you were born to do? Were you created to stay warm under the blankets? You were not born simply to feel “nice,” but to act, to experience, to participate in the world. Look at the plants, the birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees—each doing its part to keep the world in order. And you, a human being, hesitate to do yours? If you loved yourself, you would love your nature too, and everything it calls you to do.
This photograph is a reminder of that—of being awake to the world, of showing up for the small moments, of doing what our nature asks of us.
