We have a window box under our kitchen window. I am sure past owners must have planted lovely flowers there, I imagine the foliage being colorful and cheerful. For a number of reasons I have never planted anything there. The overhang all around our house is four feet deep and anything planted next to our house never gets watered unless I go out and water it. The house siding is board and batten . . . wouldn’t watering something on the house inevitably get the siding wet? Water is not good for wood on the outside of a house.
Those are my reasons. I will ignore the fact that I have been too lazy or afraid of failure to plant anything there. I have often thought about taking the window box down.
Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?
– David Attenborough (b. 1926) English broadcaster and natural historian
Birds Love Our Window Box
However, the window box is good for birds. Almost every year a pair of wrens builds a nest there. They spend days bringing material for the nest. I watch and eagerly anticipate when the nest is finished and the female lays her eggs. Finally, one day I hear faint chirping from the nest. Then the mother and father begin alternating bringing bits of food for the chicks. The tiny birds grow bigger and bigger until the mother makes her last trip to the nest and urges them to go out on their own.
That is the cycle. I wonder how they know how to fly . . . do they wonder if they can fly? Will they know how to find their own food? Are they frightened? Do they miss the safety of the nest once they have flown away?
I will never know the answers to these questions.
The human cycle is similar but takes years rather than weeks to complete. I know what my answers to those questions would be. I always wonder if I can fly and always wonder if I will have all I need for tomorrow. Some days I am frightened. Some days I wish for the safety of a home with parents to take care of me.
Lesson from the Window Box
I am comforted by the birds. Year after year they build nests. Their baby birds grow up and leave the nest. That is life. That is the cycle. I take comfort. Life is a cycle. There are changes and challenges. When we are children, days last forever. Summers are an eternity. Nothing seems to change. But in reality, life is always transforming. Maybe we just don’t notice until that day when we fly from our nest and begin to fend for ourselves.
I get a lesson in life watching these small creatures. They leap into the air and trust that they can fly . . . and they do fly!
This year my husband and I decided to video part of the process of the wren family in the window box. Here is a succession of several days before the five chicks left the nest.
I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
– James M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan
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