TAKE ONLY WHAT YOUR BEAK CAN CARRY

A houseful of Peterson’s field guides but I haven’t even tried to identify what kind of bird it is. Watching her rinse and repeat the above pattern while she constructs her nest in my porch eves one flight at a time has been a welcomed sight.

Day in and day out, tiny beak full by tiny beak full, she works diligently on the task her original instructions compel her to complete. There’s an urgency to her work but it’s not hurried. The only rushing she can do is to fly faster and fill her beak quicker but to do so she risks dropping her precious cargo and prolonging the job so instead she remains measured in her pace.

The past few weeks we have mirrored one another’s efforts in reverse. As she flew into the eves with unending mouthfuls of tinder and presumably some nervous anticipation about what is to come; I carried my entire studio out of itself one box after another, down two flights of stairs, into the car, into the unknown. Repeat 150 times. Both only able to carry what we could with what God gave us, moving at the only pace we could, determined to to build a container for what’s next one load and a time.

This morning when I went to check on the nest’s progress, I turned around to see two things:

1. What you are missing is as important as what you think you are seeing.

2. Even the natural world got the memo that social distancing rules are at least 6 feet

While I was busy watching one bird build her beautiful nest to the right of my porch-oh and noticing how freaking filthy my porch is…I had completely missed that on the other side of the grill- to the left-there was a second nest!! Another type of bird was building her baby raising dwelling there too. So far both are empty but you can feel their readiness to receive what’s next.

I can relate.