Late last week a baby bird landed on my desk. He’d been frightened by my dog and came running, shuffling and semi-flying into my office and made it to the safety of my desk. We just sat there looking at each other until I snapped this photo.
After we both settled down, I relocated him to a safe spot out in the yard and watched from my office window. Within a minute his mom and dad were chirping at him to fly back to the nest. He chirped back that he couldn’t.
An hour later, Little Bird was still there chirping. Mom and Dad were still there chirping too. They chirped chirps of encouragement and built his strength by feeding him bugs.
They knew what needed to be done. They knew their little bird needed to get back to the nest in order to survive. They could feed him, encourage him, warn him and even scold him. The only thing they couldn’t do was fly for him. The physics of starlings just doesn’t allow for that.
Watching those birds, it occurred to me that the same is true of our human lives. We can chirp words of encouragement and help to build the strength of the ones we love the most but there are times when we simply can’t fly for them. The physics of being human just doesn’t allow for that.