An Invitation from Mama Swallow

In early July, I had the fortune of going on a 2-day retreat high in the Colorado Rockies.

On the first day, I came across a nest of swallows above the entryway of the main hall. Held together by gravel bits and muddy sticks, it clung tightly to the corner of a rust-colored rafter.

I looked up each time I entered the hall, curiously wondering about the babies as if they were my own. Noticing how they’d sit at the nest’s edge with their beaks open, awaiting their mother’s return.

Once, I timed it perfectly.

As I stepped across the threshold to enter the building, mama swooped-in to feed one of her babies.

They squeaked & jumped simultaneously, hoping it was their turn.

Tears streamed down my face as I watched mama, with her golden chest and navy back, valiantly take off on her next mission, as if to say, “Soon, dear ones, I’ll return with more.”

What an astonishing commitment to her young!

After I got my bearings (What can I say, I’m a softy these days), I walked to my seat in the last row of the room.

Wiping my moist cheeks with my peach shirt sleeve, a strange, but endearing thought arose, “You do it, too, you know.”

It took a minute to sink-in, but eventually, I responded graciously, "You're right, I do."

And, my bet is: So do you.

The inherently caring, devoted-to-nurturing-our-young - and all those we love - species we are is reflected nowhere more aptly than nature.

You, too, are the valiant mother swallow for whom care is a primary language and way of relating. (Maybe it would feel okay to appreciate this? ;-)).

Your actions. Your words. Your smile. Big and small, they make a difference.

As Galway Kinnell said in Saint Francis and the Sow, "Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness..."

Warmth,

Breon

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