Life Lessons from a Barn Swallow's Nest
At first glance, I considered the newly formed barn swallow’s nest as an unwelcomed bird invasion right at my front porch. My outlook quickly changed as I began to appreciate all the valuable lessons the nest, with feathered friends, offered me. The daily observations help to formulate a list of five key principles that helped to re-center me in the midst of life's fast happenings. These bird essentials are transferable to my human life- so far as I can tell. The life essentials of unlimited protection, unyielding security, relentless survival, re-constructing self in order to adapt, and discovery of our unique identity were quickly brought to the forefront from the instinctual part of my brain.
My part of the country has been going through a wet season and wicked storm systems most recently. The storms will often set off a spectacular lightning display with the accompanying roaring thunder. Every so often, hail will fall bringing with it the forceful impact onto the landing ground without discrimination. One such storm system that moved into the region in early May truly highlighted the instinctual tendency we may have to protect ourselves alongside those that are near and dear to our hearts. The parent birds would spread their wings to protect their eggs from the forceful winds, monsoon-like rain, and thumping hail. The forming chicks most likely did not have a clue as to the level of protection their parents offered by ensuring they were shielded from the storm. The eggs were protected and remained undisturbed during the storm. The life inside shielded and oblivious to the external environment. The manner in which the birds spread their wings in order to protect their young quickly reminded me of the biblical scripture that ensures us that we have shelter under God’s wings. The protective bird observation made during this particular storm reminded me of Psalms 91. I meditated on that chapter as the reminder fell heavily on my heart while I was dealing with my internal storm system. I was quickly reminded of the protection I had through God’s continual promises and that at some level I had the same protection against the unknown. The bird parents would also dart into the nest the minute a threat was sensed providing an immeasurable amount of security. The unspoken need was always met by something greater and wiser than the hatchlings themselves.
Needless to say, the task of recharging the security camera, that captured most of the activity, was often met with some fluttering. The nearby home security camera would catch footage of how the bird parent would teach the next growth lesson of flying. The footage captured the parental modeling behavior of flying as the chicks looked on, the communication of bird chirp between the young and the old, and the chicks mirroring the parental flying behavior once the dialogue ended. The recording would go on to show the parent bird perch onto the nest as if to give immediate feedback that required full attention of the young. The bird parent was teaching the valuable lesson of their identity. The lesson of knowing who they were and would become.
The most difficult part of this temporary bird residence was cleaning up after the birds. That was dirty business! The reminder that served me there was that sometimes life is messy, and the mess quickly piles up to quite the load! We are often repulsed by our own sort of messy activity, both within and out of our control, but we learn to deal with it and clean it up. We then learn to prepare in those specific areas and learn to deal with potential future happenings of the same sort of pile up. We also learn to rebuild our way of thinking as we go through the change to adapt.
Once it appeared all the life lessons were taught, there was a time the chicks would spend some of their time just looking down from the nest to take in their external environment and make their own observations of the humans below. To learn from me as well. They waited patiently to understand their environment and learn their skills they needed to fly off to the next adventure. To exercise their freedom to fly, to explore, and not be confined to that crowded bird’s nest with all its limitations. They set off to put into practice all that they learned without reservation or trepidation. There were no inhibitions to keep them confined to that locale. It is as if their wings knew they had a wondrous world to explore and discover. These are the valuable lessons learned from watching barn swallow’s nest.
