THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIFT I HAVE EVER RECEIVED!!

Thank you Robin Red Breast for the most amazing gift ever!!! You allowed my family an up close glimpse of nature at its best. Your most  unexpected gift and perfect timing had a profound and lasting impact on our family that will not be forgotten.

                                                                  As you built your nest in the flower pot of geraniums right outside our window, we watched. As you laid your eggs and kept them warm we eagerly awaited until all had hatched. With great sadness, we tried to understand beauty along with the cruelty of nature when two of your babies were found tossed from the nest. Nonetheless, we continued to watch with great anticipation as the two remaining babies were nurtured by both the mother and father Robins. We watched as the hatchlings grew from what looked like butterbeans with sprouts into baby birds with eyes that eventually opened. Downy fur turned into feathers and wings grew and began to flutter. 

Our family was on constant bird watch for weeks until the day arrived that I noticed the babies were on the edge of the nest spreading their wings. I grabbed my camera and went out to take pictures. The parent Robins were perched on the chairs chirping like crazy, and flying back and forth to the nest. Shortly thereafter, one baby bird fluttered from the nest, landed in a chair, then onto the deck floor. The other one soon followed.  The baby birds hopped and fluttered all around, eventually fluttering to the grass
below.  Felicia came out to observe and we stood on the deck and watched with worry as the babies sat in the grass.  The parent Robins were all around, but we desperately wanted to go get the baby birds and put them back in the nest.  However, each of us understood we had to leave it to nature. The next morning the birds seemed to be gone, and I must admit I felt quite sad.  Then a couple of days later, much to our surprise, Luis came running in to announce he had found them. We were all ecstatic to find they were alive and well.

                                                                                  What an amazing experience this has been. As I have tried to process my thoughts around this beautiful gift of nature, I can describe it as a roller coaster of emotion. From excitement when the nest was being built; a perfectly woven work of art, to great joy as the eggs appeared one by one, to awaited anticipation of the hatching, to euphoric elation as each egg opened and a baby bird popped out, to total devastation as two of them died, to an enchanted fascination watching them grow, to an apprehensive worry as they flew from the nest. A circle of emotion, sort of like life, don’t you agree?

As my youngest child (Felicia) is getting ready to leave the nest, I am about to become and “empty nester” myself.  My gratitude to this Robin family is beyond words. They have shared the most beautiful gift one could ever imagine…and WOW, what perfect timing.  A gift of understanding that your babies will leave the nest; this is part of the plan, part of life.  A gift of knowing this is not an ending, but a beginning for our children to spread their wings, grow as individuals, and travel their own journeys through life.  This up close and personal view of nature has been a greatly appreciated gift of awareness and personal enlightenment; as my children move forward, I am not left behind. My own path is simply taking a turn, and I am moving along my journey as well; a bittersweet ending to a new beginning.

…and so I say, THANK YOU Robin Red Breast, for the most beautiful gift I have ever received!!!