For the past few months, I’ve been blessed every morning to see a beautiful bird outside my gym window. I watched her every day as she worked on building the perfect nest for the family she’d hoped to have.
She started building one nest under the rafters visible right outside the window. When it wasn’t quite right, she moved onto the next rafter; wanting only the best for her babies to be. Still, the nest building project didn’t quite meet her expectations so she moved on for a third time to what she must have considered, the perfect place to build a home.
Every day she’d find the right sticks and twigs, intertwine them together into the perfect shape, height and depth until she felt is was good enough to deposit her eggs. It amazed me to see how without any equipment or construction tools, she was able to create a home!
Once complete, she laid her eggs and as any mom can understand, sat waiting patiently with unconditional love until her chicks were ready to hatch.
Day after day I’d look out my window and find her there, seeming perfectly content to nurture and keep warm her growing eggs while other birds happily flew from tree to tree. She didn’t look like she was missing out on anything as she seemed satisfied sitting on her nest nurturing the precious gifts that were slowly growing beneath her. Sometimes I’d see her there with her eyes closed, sometimes open but either way, she was always there protecting her growing eggs.
Just yesterday, I checked on my new housemate and to my surprise, she wasn’t there.
Curiously, I waited because like any mom knows, a mom could never abandon her child. If she wasn’t there, it meant that either something had gone terribly wrong or at least, something had certainly changed.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, I saw a tiny beak peak out from the middle of the nest. Then I saw another tiny head…and still another. Three tiny newborn chicks were doing their best to hold their heads up, beaks open, eyes closed, waiting for their mom to come back home and feed them.
I was awestruck by the beauty of it all. A combination of a mother’s unconditional love, the miracle of birth, the desire to love and protect and all of it coming from a tiny bird who felt safe enough to choose my home as the perfect place to build a home for her new family-just as I’d felt comfortable enough choosing the same home as the perfect place to build my own.
Now, this isn’t only about a mother’s love because as I watched closely, I saw that just as we need support from friends, a partner, others, etc., my little friend had support as well. In a miraculous moment, I saw both mom and dad fly to their nest and feed their newborns the food they’d both recently searched for. What’s even more incredible is the camaraderie and pride they seemed to share as they offered a “kiss” to each other for a job well done.
It’s been great to share this gift with my own family and now with you.
Hope you enjoy this picture as much as I enjoyed sharing it!
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