Every morning at work we would plug into a wildlife cam and follow the daily life of one small bird. We were first introduced to it as a trivial white egg then a blob of … bobbing white fuzz? Then it grew dark feathers. We would enthuse every time it moved by lifting a wing or sitting on its butt and spreading its tiny perfect little wings. We count to see if our babies have ten fingers and toes, mommy birds count wings. When it strutted to the nest’s edge (an edge enforced with twigs by devoted parents to prevent their youngster from falling out) we all held our breaths, without being aware we were, till it backed away and safely re-centered itself in the nest at a safe distance from the death defying fall it would take to the forest bottom where it would become prey to carnivorous wildlife. We awed every time mom appeared with food. Oh what we learned about parental love! Even birds have it. In fact, sadly, they may abound in it more than some humans.
Mom, or dad, would hold the food with strong talons, take a bite of flesh, lean down and gingerly place the nourishment between small beaks. Such large birds, such a small baby, such gentleness! Occasionally the food would be alive and we’d see a fish flopping around on the floor of the nest. The cycle of life. One life for another.
Nothing dramatic, just day to day survival at its most boring. We watched her progress from white downy chick to dark feathery eaglet, we were there as she learned to walk, stand, hop, jump and perch (hop, jump and perch is not the name of a dance!) We didn’t know we were falling in love. With scientific accuracy we eagerly awaited the climax. The day our baby, the world’s baby, would step off the edge of the nest and fly. We knew what day that would be. July 18th, 2010. Experts knew that it took eighty days exactly till the loving parents escorted the fledgling to the precipice and….pushed her out! Really, it does take love to push our babies out, it’s a natural act and shouldn’t be avoided.
Things had been going on so predictably boring for seventy five or so days we didn’t expect the unforeseeable. One day we turned on our computer, plugged in the website and found….Its hard to say this, we found ….our baby wasn’t moving. She was laying face down, wings spread out, body cold. She had died without apparent reason, just days before she was to soar on the wings of the wind. Just days before her live become more challenging. Just days. And we all saw it. We all cried. We all prayed for her to rest in peace. RIP. We all got on Facebook to seek answers, comfort , support. To share YouTube moments of her transitory seventy five days of life. We were anxious about her parents, twenty-six year old bald eagles. We witnessed them grieve, we watched them observe, perched on another tree, the tree climbers retrieve their child’s lifeless body from the nest. We watched the rescuers lovingly handle the small body. Small? I didn’t realize it was about the size of my Shih Tzu.
The point being we followed an insignificant bit of nature, way in the treetop of a tree way in the wilderness of a country hundreds of mile away from some of us, continents away for most of us and we fell in love and got our hearts broken. That’s what love does to us.
Let’s put this on a bigger scale. Imagine a cam recorder in, let’s say, every house, tent, igloo, RV, hut, trailer, car, office, castle, ditch, cave, farmyard…are you getting the picture? I said imagine, but guess what? This isn’t make believe, we are all being watched in our humdrum day to day activities of daily living. We are all being monitored as our parents care for us, as we care for our children, as we care for our pets, as we turn over in our sleep, when we stub our toes, when we get a splinter in our fingers.
And guess what else? Someone is falling in love with us. No, let me take that back, he’s not falling in love with us, he’s always loved us, without reservation. Guess what else? He cries when we hurt, he grieves when we stray and he’s tuned in when we die. And just like science, he knows what day that will be, that day we step to the edge and take to the air, even though we don’t and shouldn’t! And on that day, just like when our little baby bird was handled lovingly by it’s rescuers, we will be held in strong tender hands and we’ll soar forever with the eagles!
Mom, or dad, would hold the food with strong talons, take a bite of flesh, lean down and gingerly place the nourishment between small beaks. Such large birds, such a small baby, such gentleness! Occasionally the food would be alive and we’d see a fish flopping around on the floor of the nest. The cycle of life. One life for another.
Nothing dramatic, just day to day survival at its most boring. We watched her progress from white downy chick to dark feathery eaglet, we were there as she learned to walk, stand, hop, jump and perch (hop, jump and perch is not the name of a dance!) We didn’t know we were falling in love. With scientific accuracy we eagerly awaited the climax. The day our baby, the world’s baby, would step off the edge of the nest and fly. We knew what day that would be. July 18th, 2010. Experts knew that it took eighty days exactly till the loving parents escorted the fledgling to the precipice and….pushed her out! Really, it does take love to push our babies out, it’s a natural act and shouldn’t be avoided.
Things had been going on so predictably boring for seventy five or so days we didn’t expect the unforeseeable. One day we turned on our computer, plugged in the website and found….Its hard to say this, we found ….our baby wasn’t moving. She was laying face down, wings spread out, body cold. She had died without apparent reason, just days before she was to soar on the wings of the wind. Just days before her live become more challenging. Just days. And we all saw it. We all cried. We all prayed for her to rest in peace. RIP. We all got on Facebook to seek answers, comfort , support. To share YouTube moments of her transitory seventy five days of life. We were anxious about her parents, twenty-six year old bald eagles. We witnessed them grieve, we watched them observe, perched on another tree, the tree climbers retrieve their child’s lifeless body from the nest. We watched the rescuers lovingly handle the small body. Small? I didn’t realize it was about the size of my Shih Tzu.
The point being we followed an insignificant bit of nature, way in the treetop of a tree way in the wilderness of a country hundreds of mile away from some of us, continents away for most of us and we fell in love and got our hearts broken. That’s what love does to us.
Let’s put this on a bigger scale. Imagine a cam recorder in, let’s say, every house, tent, igloo, RV, hut, trailer, car, office, castle, ditch, cave, farmyard…are you getting the picture? I said imagine, but guess what? This isn’t make believe, we are all being watched in our humdrum day to day activities of daily living. We are all being monitored as our parents care for us, as we care for our children, as we care for our pets, as we turn over in our sleep, when we stub our toes, when we get a splinter in our fingers.
And guess what else? Someone is falling in love with us. No, let me take that back, he’s not falling in love with us, he’s always loved us, without reservation. Guess what else? He cries when we hurt, he grieves when we stray and he’s tuned in when we die. And just like science, he knows what day that will be, that day we step to the edge and take to the air, even though we don’t and shouldn’t! And on that day, just like when our little baby bird was handled lovingly by it’s rescuers, we will be held in strong tender hands and we’ll soar forever with the eagles!
