I never knew how much joy could be derived simply from seeing a baby bird grow up, and then mommy return to the same nest to lay even more eggs.  I was devastated when I had to go to work on the day when the first baby bird learned to fly.  By the time I had returned from work, I arrived to an empty nest.

I watched the beginnings of the bird- from mom building the nest, to eggs (I’m assuming- I couldn’t actually see) to a baby beak (or beaks) sticking out…I still can’t determine how many there are.  I’m thinking two, I see beaks up there.

2 baby birds?

 But now, with the second batch of birds, I’ve seen the momma bird sleep in the nest with the babies- I thought the 2nd batch had two, but can you imagine my delight when they’re getting bigger and I see three?  Wow, I am thrilled! Now they’re flapping their wings, and getting all big and ready to fly! (I have neglected to get a picture of all 3 baby birds up there)

I can just imagine how parents feel when they see their babies grow to toddlers, to teenagers, then adulthood.

Again, Life Goes On.  (As the famous ’80s TV show states so bluntly.)

ANOTHER YEAR GOES BY…

Now it is 2015.  And of course the robins return to make a nest.  Only this year, they make the nest, and a big ugly disgusting black bird (can you tell I’m a bit mad at this black bird??) comes in and swoops down and looks inside it.  Once the black bird’s scent is noticed on the nest, the robins abandon the nest.  Of course; so Matt and I take the nest down, and the robins decide to build another one, only on another post under the deck…AND THE BLACK BIRD COMES AGAIN.  This time, I think the eggs were laid, the robin had been sitting on the nest for along while.  The momma bird goes off for some food, and the black bird swoops in.  My heart is broken.

I come downstairs to see the momma robin returns once again to sit on top of the nest, guarding it with her life, only the poor eggs are gone.  I can just imagine how much that momma bird hurts.  I hated doing this, but the robins were just going to return to the same area, so my husband and I had to put coffee cans over the places the nests were previously to prevent the bird from building.

My family says it’s the way nature works…survival of the fittest, the circle of life–blah blah blah.

The robin and the crow create a metaphor to be applied in life.  Having perseverance and persistence is all a person can do, life goes on, it must go on.  Sure, everyone has a tragedy now and then, the factor that shapes a life is what the person does with the results of that tragedy.  When I was faced with the misfortune of my car accident, I could have given up, thrown up my hands in the air and use my brain injury as an excuse for why I couldn’t do anything at all.  My mom told me early on soon after I awoke from my coma, that I can’t keep using this injury as a crutch [I was saying, ‘Oh, I can’t do this or that because I have a brain injury.’].  She told me that I am still the same person, with the same capabilities as everyone else, that my car accident is just something that happened to me.  Sure, my traumatic brain injury makes it a little more challenging in school and creates many physical obstacles for me, but it’s nothing that I can’t overcome by a little more work and determination.  My husband and I had to put that coffee can in place on the posts of my deck just as a reminder to the birds.  That crow may come back and get the little eggs again, but this time natural selection is not going to happen on my deck.