Yesterday my son and I were pulling up to our house after grabbing some dinner from Culvers. He looked at me and said, "Ma, the birds are back." I said yeah, Mare, I know they come back every year. Now let me tell you something about these birds; they are loud and leave a mess on my porch, letting me know they have been there. The birds, I felt, were a nuisance because they picked my porch lights to build a nest. I don't know why; however, for quite some time, I would knock the nest down as soon as they started building; however, I would make sure there were no eggs inside. I can imagine how the birds felt when they came back throughout the day to add to what they built to see that it was knocked down again. They probably were singing, "Brrrrr, what happened to that boy" but it didn't stop them. We went back and forth doing this little dance for quite some time until they caught me slipping. I went to knock it down, and long, behold, that damn nest was filled with eggs. The look on my face as I clutched my invisible pearls, was priceless. I had no choice but to leave it alone because they worked so hard to not only build it but to put into making sure it was safe enough for their babies. From that day forward, every spring, I look forward to watching them return to start over without interruptions. Our conversation about the birds led into our life sessions/lessons, and I asked my son why we don't have the same determination as humans. He said, "Ma, I don't know."
Those damn birds didn't care how often I destroyed what they built. They were persistent and knew the temporary home they were building would eventually see the light of day. So why do we humans work hard on something, and the moment an obstacle causes us to have to pivot, we walk away? We are like this shit for the birds; I'm tired of tweeting; 20 years have passed, and we are talking about shoulda, woulda, coulda. The truth is we could have however we "chose" to let the setbacks interfere and not find an alternate way. I think about how if I didn't walk away 12 years ago from a hellacious marriage, I wouldn't be in a successful one today. No matter how often I felt like I was getting knocked down, I continued to press on until I could take flight for good.
In conclusion, we will always face things that we may feel are hindering us from moving toward our goals, whether having a successful marriage, job, friendships, or even the house we always wanted. But, if we can hold our beaks high like the damn birds, be persistent, and be determined, we can start over each day until the nest we are building is finished.
I challenge you to ask yourself these questions?'
Have you identified the reasons you never move forward when you are faced with adversity?
Do you want to see what you always wanted come to fruition?
When will you stop tweeting? FYI I am not talking about Twitter either.