I KNOW Nothing!

I know this is not about dentistry nor veterinary education and training.  But, I wanted to share it with you all none-the-less.

So, on April 28th, 2013 I shared this photo on my personal Facebook page:

I wrote the following under the photo:

So, this morning, I was so excited to climb up and see if we had eggs or chicks! Now, it is a good thing you weren't outside of my house as I was taking this picture, because you should have seen the bed head, old PJs and this 53 yr old teetering on a plastic step ladder getting attacked by the brazen, fitful mommy bird. You would have died of fright or laughter. Either way, you'd be dead and you wouldn't get to see this!


The different eggs certainly caught my attention and so I wrote further:

 So...we have squatters? Who belongs to who and what do I do? Do I get rid of the squatters? Do I let Nature run its course? What kind of eggs are they? The bombardier bird was small, brown with bright red mixed in. I am thinking Red House Finch. The one thing I am not going to do is turn on the light at night. We will have 8 cooked eggs!

Then I did some research and posted the following:
So, apparently, a Brown Headed Cowbird has laid eggs in my house sparrow's nest. Cowbirds do not build nests due to their wide migratory nature. So, they parasitise other bird nests. Usually the cowbird removes one of the host eggs and then she lays one or more of her own eggs in the nest. She is capable of laying 30-40 eggs over a 2-3 month period so she parasitises many nests. The eggs then hatch and the chicks are much bigger than the other chicks.  Not only will they starve out the host chicks, as they grow, they can literally crowd the other babies out.

Everybody posted opinions on how to handle it.  Literally, it was the most responded to post I have ever gotten (71 interactions).  They went from removing the larger, cowbird eggs to letting Mother Nature handle it.  I valued everyone's opinions but I really struggled with this.  I even went so far as to try to design a net to hang under the nest to catch anyone that was crowded out with the intention to take them to the area's licensed wildlife sanctuary/rehab.

OK...I wrestled with the decision as to how to handle the cowbird:house finch saga.  I chose to allow Mother Nature and the Universe to do as She does best...I figured it was Her responsibility to handle it and my name was not on this.

For days, I had chosen not to peek.  I was afraid my reaction would be that of disgust and disappointment.  But, yesterday I chose to see what had happened.  The video clearly shows what I found and my heart filled with the miracle of Spring and the joy of new life.

Within the last five years I am frequently reminded that I don't know everything and I don't have to understand all.  I have no idea why cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.  I have no idea why wonderful people get sick.  I don't know why young men bomb innocent children and people.  I don't understand how miracles happen.  But, I have awakened to the beauty and joy available to us in those moments if we chose to see them.

This tiny house finch has chosen to love three big cowbirds as though they were her own.  She doesn't question why they don't look like her, or why they eat so much...she loves them unconditionally. She rises to the challenge and that is a Miracle.  People I love get sick but families and friends rally and gather and find strength and Love in moments they would have otherwise thought they could never survive.  Bombs go off and people run towards the danger to help a stranger instead of listening to the survival part of their brain that clearly says: RUN!

I am coming up on 54 years old and the older I get, the more I surrender to the fact that I KNOW NOTHING!  That statement sounds scary but it has offered me the most beautiful way to experience life.

Namaste', friends.

Vickie