Learning to Leave the Nest

On a recent trip to Tucson to babysit my granddaughter, I was able to witness an interesting aspect of God's creation. A bird had built her nest in the corner of the roof that covers the patio at my daughter's house. Each morning my granddaughter would go to the window and look up and say, "bird" in her little eighteen-month-old voice. She had to check on the bird several times a day. So I too began watching the bird.






One morning I noticed that there was a baby bird in the nest, too. Several mornings the mother bird would be gone, then come back and feed the baby. Watching the process was amazing. The baby bird seemed to grow up overnight. The baby seemed small, but by the day I left it had learned to fly and had left the nest. I took a couple of photos of the baby bird after it had flown out of the nest. But mama bird was close by watching and swooped in, but not before I managed to snap the photo below.



The photo below is of mama and baby sitting on the fence around my daughter's swimming pool.


Baby had flown from the nest, when just days before the mama bird had been protecting her baby beneath her wing. It reminded me of the scripture, Psalm 91:4. "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

Have you ever had an interesting experience watching God's creatures?

Traveling

Just call me Merrillee--suitcase will travel. Sometimes, I think I should forget putting my suitcase back in the attic. A number of my trips this year have been to Chicago to babysit my granddaughter. That's what I'm doing now while her mom and dad are flying to Arizona to see about moving there.

I like to travel, and I usually leave packing until the last minute. I know that's bad, but it's a habit I haven't been able to break. Flying can be a hassle, but I like the opportunity to watch and study people. Maybe it's the writer in me that has me taking in the way people interact. There are the business travelers with their computers and cellphones. I still haven't gotten used to the people who sit in airports and appear to be talking to themselves when they are using one of those bluetooth gizmos or microphone with a cellphone. Then there are the families with small children who have had to take half their house with them in order to provide for the kids. There are the folks who need wheelchairs. There are the seasoned travelers who pay no attention to the flight attendants giving the emergency instructions, and there are the first-timer flyers who hang on the flight attendant's every word.

I like a window seat so I can see out and look at the tiny cars and neatly laid out cities and towns. It's fun to see if I can recognize places from the air--like the time we flew over the Wake Forest University campus where one of my daughter's went to college or the time I picked out my own house from the air or the time I flew on the Fourth of July and saw four different fireworks displays as we started our approach to the Jacksonville airport.

On this most recent trip, I sat next to a woman who was reading on a Kindle. I had never seen one up close. So I asked her how she liked it. She told me that she was very pleased with it. She asked me what I was reading, and that opened up an opportunity to talk about Steeple Hill, since I was reading a Love Inspired book. We talked for a while, then we proceeded to read. By the end of the flight, I had finished my book. Even though she was reading on a Kindle, I offered her the book which, of course, contained a couple of my bookmarks. She gladly accepted the book. I hope she reads it, and that we gain a new fan.

Do you like to travel? Why or why not?