Photo of the Day -The Blue Bird (1908)

There were five; two took off when I picked up the phone. I didn’t dare waste time zooming in. I just wanted proof. They. Do. Exist. Bluebirds in my yard.

The Eastern Bluebird, the symbol of happiness, hope, and health, is in our neighborhood. Bluebirds bring hope. They are the sign for spiritual transformation, for health. For HOPE!

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Maurice Maeterlinck’s screenplay L’Oiseau bleu (The Blue Bird) premiered in September 1908 at Constantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre in Moscow, Russia.

The story takes place in a small German village during the Napoleonic Wars. Siblings Mytyl and Tyltyl are the children of a lumberjack.

Around Christmas, Mytyl and Tyltyl catch a rare, shimmering blue bird said to possess special powers. Little Mytyl stubbornly refuses to take this bird to her sick friend Angela Berlingot. When the family is having dinner, Mytyl complains to the parents that they are so poor and they are not doing as well as other families. Her parents call her to order and try to convey to her what values an intact family offers. It seems their selfishness has consequences. Shortly afterward, a messenger arrives, and the father has to go to war.

After Mytyl falls asleep, she dreams of the fairy Berylume, who wants her to find the shy blue bird of happiness together with her brother Tyltyl. In the dream, the fairy Berylume helps Tylette, the family’s deceitful cat, and the loyal family dog Tylo to develop a human form and language. She gathers up a light fairy from a small lantern, who shows the small group the way with her magical light. Their search for the bluebird first takes children, animals, and fairies into the past. In the cemetery, Mytyl and Tyltyl meet the deceased grandparents, who awaken and joyfully greet their grandchildren. However, the children do not find the bluebird in the past. Tylette asks the children to continue their search in the present, where people indulge in luxury. Tylette, in particular, likes it exceptionally well with Mrs. and Mr. Luxury, but there are often arguments between the siblings, and they feel increasingly lonely in the big house, where no one really has time for the other. They soon realize that happiness is not interchangeable with luxury and wealth. With the help of their dog Tylo, they try to escape the abundance. Tylette, however, wants to stop this and incites the trees to scare the children so much that they turn back. The trees then conspire with the wind and fire and prompt them to kill the children. In the following storm, which turned into a huge fire, however, it hits Tylette, while the children can escape with Tylo to reach the realm of the future, perhaps to find what they are looking for there, and to discover the blue bird. In the future, the unborn children of the world wait for the time of their birth, and Mytyl and Tyltyl also meet their future sister, who has not yet been born. A golden ship with silver sails brings them back to earth.

When the children wake up and see their mother and then learn that a truce has been declared and their father has come home, they are overjoyed. And, oh wonder, Tylette is also back, to which Mytyl remarks that a cat also has seven lives. And the bluebird, she already has it, as Mytyl finally realizes. Purified and full of sincere joy, she takes him to Angela, who is immediately miraculously cured of her illness. When Angela strokes the bird, it flies away. Mytyl assures his girlfriend that this is not a bad thing, because now they are able to find him again.

The Eastern Bluebird showed up, and now my heart is full of joy and hope, and my phone is full of unsharp, shaky pictures of a bird I never saw that close. Next time, I am prepared (I hope). Next time, I will have a steady hand. Maybe next time the birds will stay awhile.

Here is a public picture of these beautiful birds.

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