Jack holding a Robin’s egg shell
I found a Robins nest, a month or so ago, and noticed that it was full of babies. At first I could only hear them, but they grew bigger and louder as the weeks past.
The parents had been very visible, flying in and out of the nest and greeting me, it seemed, every morning by sitting on a branch close to our house and calling out. I’ve always noticed Robins, but these seemed like they were noticing me back. Jack even started calling them “your Robins”, so I’ve been paying attention to what they might mean in my life and Sunday night, I woke up with the words, “You are fine right now, where you are. When you are ready, you will be moved up”, going through my mind.
The next morning, I unexpectedly came home between appointments, and sensed that the adults were extra loud and really wanted me to notice them. One of the adults in particular, had a red berry in her mouth and was swooping past me as I stood by my car, lighting on a nearby branch, calling out again and then swooping some more, back and forth.
I decided to see what Esther was up to, and found her just sitting in the grass, but I brought her inside anyway (just to be on the safe side) and went back out to look around. As I entered the garage I heard a very loud series of chirps that were echoing off the walls and I could see the adult birds circling outside and around the garage.
As I tried to figure out where the sound was coming from, I walked past the large garbage barrel, and heard it again. When looked inside, I could see one of the Robin babies at the bottom. The barrel was too deep for my arm to get all the way in, so I tipped it and then reached down. It was flapping around, trying to avoid my hand but I finally did manage to bring it outside.
I couldn’t tell whether it was hurt or not, but it looked old enough to fly so I put it on the ground under the nest and stepped back about 20 feet to watch. The parents were circling and then one of them landed a few feet away from it and began hopping closer. …the baby was still just chirping a loud alarmed cry, but after a couple of minutes, I saw it hop to the parent and they hopped together, around the corner of the garage, out of sight.
I went inside the house and waited about 5 minutes and when I went back outside, the birds were all gone. I checked the nest and it was empty too.
My mind flashed back to the words that I heard the night before and the connection with the Robins and my own impatience about something that I had wanted to happen faster in my life. The baby Robins were not ready to fly until Monday, July 2nd. There was Divine timing at work, and my part was simply to enjoy observing them. If I had tried to rush things along; gotten them to leave the nest earlier, it wouldn’t have worked out well for those birds. Equally, if I didn’t act when I was called to, one of the babies probably wouldn’t have made it.
There is Divine help, Divine wisdom and Divine timing working for every one of us, all of the time. I am just one part of an infinitely vast, beautiful network of unseen helping hands, no more important than any other, but not less important either.
Today, I intend to notice and celebrate the interdependence, and wonderful connectedness, of Life.
To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now. Alan Cohen
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