Robins Nest-Revisited

St. Francis of Assisi was known to have preached to the birds...

“He went right up to them and solicitously urged them to listen to the word of God, saying, ‘Oh birds, my brothers and sisters, you have a great obligation to praise your Creator, who clothed you in feathers and gave you wings to fly with, provided you with pure air and cares for you without any worry on your part.’…The birds showed their joy in a remarkable fashion: They began to stretch their necks, extend their wings, open their beaks and gaze at him attentively." ~From American Catholic.org

Yesterday was a miserable day. It was one of those days where I woke up on the wrong side of the bed after a bad dream,and the day was filled with little thorns throughout. It was nothing major, just those little things that kept pricking at me all day long, and I struggled to tolerate them. And its not that there weren't some roses strewn about, the best of which I was able to spend 30 blessed minutes in silent Eucharistic Adoration at the beautiful convent chapel. You'd think that would have healed all those little wounds I was feeling, but more were to come. As my daughter Mary and I were driving to the grocery store, the brakes on the van were causing problems and we were very grateful to God for our safe arrival. Then,while packing up our groceries, another customer in the store took my box, and when I tried to be assertive and tell him that the box belonged to me, he snarled at me and said "It's not your box anymore! I found it and I'm keeping it!" That rude comment was the last straw for me and I sank to the humiliation of crumbling into tears, right then and there in the grocery store. How I longed for the rude comments about my family size that I used to complain about!

Mary and I prayed (and I continued to cry), all the way home asking God for a safe arrival,which He generously granted, and when we walked in the door, my husband and sons greeted us with more bad news. It seems that our robin friend who was living on our sunporch window ledge and nurturing four baby robins out of their eggs was startled out of her nest by the boys' noisy arrival home from school, and when she flew from her nest, she knocked the nest off the ledge. All that my boys could find at the bottom of the rose bush was one baby bird and some broken egg shells. Justin lovingly picked up the nest, placed the tiny bird with its little feathers on the top of its head gently back into the nest and put it back up on the window ledge.

We watched closely all night to see if the mother robin would come back, and sure enough she did! She stayed with her little baby bird throughout the night, feeding it, keeping it warm and loving it like any good mother would. Seeing this mother from the animal world struggle with her problems, made me realize how foolish I am to sweat so many small things. After all,God is in charge, isn't He? After a glass of wine and a good night sleep, the world looks brighter today.

Now, I am inspired to listen to the wondrous words of St. Francis of Assisi and his sermon to the birds, and follow that same example in my own life. It is my obligation to praise my creator who has provided me with pure air, the very breath of the Holy Spirit, and who always cares for me. I will not worry!