The Empty Nest

Two days before turning 54 and I'm still adjusting to the Empty Nest.


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Story:




There is a nest on our patio that was built last year by a bird. Eggs were laid and hatched. Babies were fed and cared for and then something terrible happened because the nest had been built at the top of a hollow column. One of the babies was perched atop the nest, just days, even moments from taking flight and leaving the nest forever, and then IT happened. The fledgling fell down into the column, a ten foot drop, trapped forever. There was simply no way to rescue it. I heard it for several days, fluttering around, trying it's hardest to get out. It couldn't. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to rescue it. There was no way for me to communicate with it and tell it that I had a plan that might work. "Just grab the rope with your beak when I lower it and I'll pull you up!"



It died and the nest was empty.


I decided to leave the nest in hopes that this year a bird would return and successfully raise and launch it's brood. It happened. The nest was adopted. Eggs were laid and babies were hatched and raised. It all happened in a blink of the eye and they grew so fast, then IT happened. Today, the second of two chicks successfully took flight as the mother and father bird watched on. The chicks were now free to enjoy their new lives as they were meant to and the parents' commitment to their young had been fulfilled. The parents' and chicks' lives had suddenly, almost instantly, changed. The endless task of catching bugs to feed the babies and keeping the young birds warm was over for the parents; the chicks are now charged with the role of the older adults. I watched the mother and father bird perched on our patio chairs, staring at the nest, not knowing quite what to do with themselves.



They lived and the nest was empty.



(Just as I was about finished with this post, I looked out and saw the father bird fly onto the patio and sit quietly on the patio chair. With food in mouth, he looked up at the nest. It was empty.......It's just hard to stop being a parent, I guess....no matter where you fit into God's creation.)