This brings me to the feathery messengers who have been my private angels. . . .
But the birds I am writing about here are those who have opened new vistas, inspired my mind to ask new questions, made my imagination soar, and caused my spirit to expand. . . . My experience is illustrative not normative. I offer this account of the glimpses of the sacred that have occurred in my encounters with certain birds, snakes, and other creatures in the hope that it may be useful to others who are in quest of the places, experiences, and metaphors that undergird their sense of the sacred.
— Sam Keen, Sightings