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Story: The Inattentive ‘Elepaio

/ Rev. Eric Anderson / 2 Comments
‘Alawi (left) and ‘Elepaio (right)

August 10, 2025

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Luke 12:32-40

The ‘elepaio are usually the most actively curious birds in the forest. They hop and flutter and fly their way around the trees from the topmost branches all the way to the forest floor. They look into gaps in the leaves, cracks in the bark, and even holes in the rocks for the bugs and things they like to eat. They’ll perch on a branch and pick up bugs and caterpillars. They’ll pull bugs out of rolled-up leaves. They’ll chase flying insects on the wing.

You can do that if you’re paying attention.

If you’re not paying attention, well… it’s all going to be harder.

There was an ‘elepaio who just couldn’t concentrate. He didn’t pay attention to what was around him. His friends liked to sneak up on him and ruffle their feathers; they made a game of how loud they had to be before he noticed. I’d like to say that he was so inattentive because in his curiosity he was thinking deep thoughts, but no. He wasn’t.

Mostly he was sitting rather sleepily on a branch.

The result was that he got rather hungry. An ‘elepaio is a small bird, for sure, but an ‘elepaio eats small things, so you have to eat a lot of small things to keep from being hungry. He’d get hungry, but it would only rouse him to do a casual look around. If he spotted a bug, well, he could usually catch it. He still didn’t look closely, though, and it surprised those who watched him how many other bugs and caterpillars he’d miss.

It was an ‘alawi that helped him concentrate.

She was moving along a branch near the one he perched on one day, searching for the bugs she liked to eat, which were also pretty much the bugs that the ‘elepaio liked to eat. He wasn’t greedy, so he didn’t chase her away. He was even feeling a little friendly, so he called out a greeting, and then said:

“I’m afraid you won’t find anything there. I’ve been here a while and haven’t seen anything to eat.”

She looked puzzled, because right in front of her, barely hidden by a fold in the bark, was a spider. She took it in her beak, showed it to the ‘elepaio, and ate it rather sheepishly. She felt a little guilty eating in front of a hungry fellow creature.

“Oh,” he said. “I didn’t see that one.”

“How about this one?” she said, showing him another bug.

“Really? There were two?”

“Three,” she said, and then, “Four. Actually, quite a bit more than four.”

He watched in some amazement as she pulled bug after spider after caterpillar from the branch he was sure didn’t have any bugs on it.

“How did you find those?” he asked, astonished.

“I looked,” she said. “I moved along, and as I moved, I looked.”

He thought about what he’d been doing, which was sitting still, and not looking.

“I guess I ought to do more of that,” he said.

“If you don’t want to be hungry, it would work better,” she agreed.

So the two birds moved along their respective branches, and both of them agreed it was good to be fed.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Story

I write these stories ahead of time, but I tell them in worship from memory (and improvisation). What you just read will not match the video recording of my telling.

Photos of an ‘alawi and ‘elepaio by Eric Anderson.

Story: In Front of Your Beak

/ Rev. Eric Anderson / 4 Comments

August 18, 2024

Psalm 34:9-14
Ephesians 5:15-20

The ‘elepaio had a problem. She was hungry.

This is not an uncommon condition for an ‘elepaio, or for that matter for any bird up in the forests of Hawai’i. They tend to be small birds, but the things they eat are also small, so they tend to eat often or, to put it another way, whenever they can. Kind of like a human child in the middle of a growing time.

This ‘elepaio, however, had a somewhat different problem. It wasn’t that there wasn’t food around. There was plenty. It was that, well, she liked to look ahead.

Again, plenty of ‘elepaio look ahead. They’re the curious birds of the forest. They check out the people moving through the woods, and they check out the trees – for food, generally. But they do it up close and personal. If you’re walking through the forest and an ‘elepaio wants to find out more about you, they’ll perch pretty close.

This ‘elepaio, however, had somehow got the idea that the way to learn what was happening was with the big picture only. She’d perch high in a tree, looking out over the slopes for signs of the insects that she ate. And… she’d find them. Sure. Bugs get around, and you’ll find them high in a tree. What you won’t do is see them in a distant tree. They’re small. They don’t move the leaves and branches. In fact, if you look at leaves and branches from a distance, you’ll pretty much see… leaves and branches.

She was so intent one day on looking for bugs in distant trees that she didn’t hear her mother land behind her.

“Child,” said her mother, “what’s the problem?”

“I’m hungry,” said her daughter, “and I’m having trouble finding bugs to eat.”

“Why do you think that is?” asked her mother, as she watched a bug walk along the very branch her daughter was perched on.

“I think it’s just hard to do,” said the young ‘elepaio, who now had two bugs crawling along in front of her.

“Could it be that you’re looking too far ahead?” asked her mother, who knew it was.

“I don’t see how it could be,” said her daughter, who was so still that one of the bugs was near to climbing onto her.

“Look right in front of your beak,” said mother, and her daughter looked. Then she looked again, and then she ate one bug, then the other, and found two more on a nearby leaf.

“Better?” asked her mother.

“Better,” admitted her daughter, “but shouldn’t we be looking ahead for things?”

“It’s useful to look to the distance,” said her mother, “because there are important things there, which might be bugs, or storms, or a hunting ‘io. But there are also important things right in front of you, like breakfast, and water, and the materials for a nest.”

“And someone to teach me to look there,” said her daughter.

“And someone to be with you and care for you,” said her mother.

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Story

https://www.youtu.be/x4Jrcqc189E?si=GgNjOthZiR97sryN&t=837

I write these stories in advance, in full, but I tell them from a combination of memory and new creation. Therefore the recording does not match the text above.

Photo of an ‘elepaio by Dominic Sherony – Hawaii Elepaio (Chasiempis sandwichensis), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52150179.