The bird
When I got to work this morning and got out of my car I saw a dove sitting on the wooden fence that surrounds the parking lot. The bird had a bit of dry grass in its beak, looking like it was heading off to build a nest.

I got out of my car and the bird was staring at me. I looked back a the bird and said "Hi", expecting it to fly away. It didn't.

I reached into my car and got my bag, locked the door and swung it shut. When I looked at the fence again the bird was still there. Looking at me.

I said "bye" to the bird and started walking to the building. After a half dozen steps I looked over my shoulder and the bird was still there, in the same spot, with the grass in its beak, staring right at me.

I walked on and when I reached the bottom of the stairs leading into the building, I stopped and turned around. The bird was still there. It was still staring at me. Shouldn't this bird be busy doing something? Like building a nest? Why's it so interested in me?

It was really starting to weird me out. I started thinking maybe it was a sign. But a sign of what? Let's see, it's a bird. A dove I think. Didn't a dove bring Noah an olive branch in the bible? This dove's got dirty grass in it's mouth, but that's close enough. Maybe I'm supposed to build an ark?

Or maybe it's trying to tell me something, like, don't go into the building today, it's going to explode or burn down. Maybe it's a warning dove, sent by some secret society out there that knows I'm The Chosen One and is looking out for me. But why send a dove? I'd expect some cool monk with ninja skills to come and warn me if I were The One, not a bird.

What if it was the soul of some dead relative and it's keeping tabs on me for some reason. Like a guardian angel or something? I'm not sure how helpful a flying rat could be. And I sure hope that when I die I get reincarnated as something better than a dove.

Anyhow, as I stood there and my brain flashed through all these "meanings" for the dove's presence, the bird flew away. It fluttered over to the pine tree near my car. It's probably building a nest in there and was just waiting for me to get lost so I didn't see where it's nest is. Instincts, probably.

As I walked into the building I forgot about the bird and started thinking about how cool it would be if I was some kind of Chosen One and some little ninja monk guy came up to me one day and told me I had to come with him and save the world from evil aliens or something.

Little ninja monks are cool.