nature lessons

Hi Honey!

Today is Nature Day at my house.  She has been teaching me.

Actually, the first lesson was from yesterday.  I was at my desk and I began to notice and insistent cheeping.  I went to the window, and I saw a fledgling robin sitting on the low branch of the pine tree out back.  A parent robin was nearby, cheeping encouragement.  After a few moments, the baby fluttered to another branch, because a larger bird displaced it.  It was the other parent, who had been sitting on the ground. Then the babe drew on its courage, and flew to my wheelbarrow and perched on the handle.  One of the parents swooped by and flew to the garden fence, where cheeping continued - "C'mon my child - you can do it. Fly to Papa."

The fledgling flew back into the pine tree, and I had to go back to work.

But I thought about recent comments about pushing the baby bird from the nest.  Obviously, when that happens both parents stay close to protect, guide, encourage.

Just seemed like an important footnote to our conversation.

I get up for work at 5:00 am.  My bedroom window opens on a few wooded, brushy acres.  A friend reminded me that we are at the height of songbird migration. The birds migrate at night and spend the day resting in brushy, wooded areas.  In the morning I hear full avian orchestra, and I wonder which travelers are nearby. But yesterday, I wondered how the first-timers were doing.  I thought about my little fledgling, and the flight that is coming in just a few months.

Today's lesson was...I'm still not sure.  Maybe surrender.  I was on the phone, and thunder started rumbling in the distance.  It seemed like it would pass north of the house.  Then, quickly, the sky was black and low and it was pouring rain.  I saw a white thing...I thought...then another...then the sky and the ground were all hail.  Hail ranging in size from a raspberry to a small apricot.  It was bouncing off the cars, the house, the skylights, the roof.  Bangs echoed through the house.  It couldn't tell if it would stop. It turned to furious, heavy rain, then back to bigger hail. 

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't think of anything to do. I had one of those awesome/awe-filled moments when I understood the power of nature and the insignificant power of a human.

We must endure, we must trust.

I felt so teeny, tiny, part of it all...but such a small part.

Took me back to my feelings while reading the Kingsolver book.  Things are changing, things we can't control, and they will never be the same again - ever.

I thought about some of my gifts of adversity and asked for the lesson. The lessons are about the use of tools, both conventional and alternative.  And about hiding - from feelings and from people...about being soft, but appropriately.

Always more to think about.

How are you?

Love and virtual hugs,

Clare