When Fledglings Fly Away (Part-1)
If you don't like mushy, sentimental stuff, better not read any further. I'm going to try to put into words how I'm feeling right now. It's personal, and parts of it might be somewhat poetic because that's how things are aligned in my head right now. Not poetic, as in rhythmic and rhyming…but poetic, as in nature and words and sounds and feelings all coming together, into something that seems to be forcing itself out of my heart.
As a mother, I know I must be prepared for the fledglings to leave the nest. My brain knows this but my heart is in denial.My brain and my heart of faith remind me that this is not our real home. We are all strangers and wanderers in this vale of tears. We walk the paths along which God leads us. We accomplish the tasks that lay before us. We fall. We get up again. We bask in the love and forgiveness. We rejoice. We cry. We tell others of the reason for the Hope that lies within us. But through it all, we know that this is a transient world.
But my heart of flesh loves this world. I love my family. My kids. I don't want to let go of them. Not yet.
The weather outside is perfect today. Perfect for my melancholy!!
Seems like it’s going to rain any moment. Maybe God will at last have mercy on the parched souls. The sound of the wind as it fights its way through the dried leaves is loud and robust, coming wave upon wave and then quietening until only a trace of white noise remains. The merest whisper. But before the sound disappears completely, it starts up again into a raging vengeance. A perfect backdrop for my grieving heart….(yes, silent tears are rolling down my cheeks)
And through it all I see a pair of Red-vented Bulbuls, busily scurrying with tiny morsels in their mouth to feed their “ohh soo quiet” fledglings right at the top of my head. They are nesting in one of the overhanging baskets. Yes, there are no insistent, squeaky begging calls for food but they are absolutely quiet as if trying to hide away from all predators, looking undeniably cute in their unkempt, fluffy feathers.
How symbolic!! As if nature itself is being a deliberate partner in my unending dilemma to teach me ‘let go…’! After all, isn’t it quite an unusual nesting place for that perky pair.
In a few days from now, it’ll be time for them to take off for their first flight. I don’t know how scary it is for a bird to learn how to soar – after all, they were created to do that. But by the tentative hops and frantic fluttering of wings, I have to think that just like most things that we learn as humans, it is a learning process for them too…
July 3, 2014
contd.
