![\"nest\"\/](\"https:\/\/punyamishra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/nest.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a> As I looked at it closely I was struck (actually blown away) its beauty and perfection\u2014strands and grass woven together with such care! One can just marvel at the time, effort and skill that must have gone into building it. And remember the only tool available was a beak!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I would not be able to create something this intricate. So much for my large frontal cortex and opposable thumb… Guess who’s the bird brain now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are those, who I think, will be somewhat underwhelmed by my response to this nest. What’s the big deal they will wonder, it’s just a nest. We’ve seen hundreds of these… That may be, but I think many of us think we have seen a nest – but truly we haven’t. Learning to see is a skill or an art that needs to be cultivated. I had made a similar point in a previous post – where where I spoke of finding beauty in banality<\/a>. I wrote there about the importance of distinguishing between recognition<\/strong> and perception<\/strong>. Recognition is about seeing things for how they have been labelled or categorized (this is a nest! ho hum), while perception is about seeing things for what they are! Perception requires letting go (in so far as possible) of prior categories and classifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was reminded of this nest a few days ago when I came this article about underwater crop circles\u2014another intricate, circular structure similar to the nest (see image below). These circular structures with radiating spokes were first discovered in the 1980’s off the coast of Japan. Scientists till recently did not have sense of how these structures came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n