Spring Reaches New Heights: Baby Eagles

I love spring.  I love the sight of new leaves growing on the trees, branches once bare, now sprouting out with beautiful colors.  The idea of birth, "rebirth," new chances and possibilities.  And today - a special treat.  Watching an eagle preparing her nest while patiently waiting for her babies to make an appearance.  As interesting as it is, I must admit that I did not realize it would be so mesmerizing.  How often has one said "if only I could be a fly on the wall"?  And in this case we are - all 250,000 of us watching this eagle sit patiently on her eggs. 

Didn't even realize how much time was passing until I began to wonder what was happening to the color.  Of course, it is night time now.  The cameras recording the events are enveloped in the night's darkness.  Yet she waits and prepares.  Sometimes so patiently that it appears as if I am looking at a screensaver and not an actual live feed. As I write, she appears to sleep.  Her head slowly lowers closer to the nest, very slowly.  Asleep, but aware.  What an awesome opportunity, to view nature at its finest.  To realize that there has to be some kind of plan, some design.  This mother eagle knows instinctly what is expected, what is necessary, what is expected.  And manages to communicate beautifully with the male eagle that swoops in and out of our view.

And like the mother eagle, we too must often wait and prepare patiently for God's plan to reveal itself.  But reveal itself it will - as it is all part of the grand design.

What Keeps Us From Hatching?

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."

C. S. Lewis

I love this analogy.  So often it seems so easy to just "keep everything the way it is," including myself.  So I wonder what exactly it means to hatch from the egg, especially if the egg is a perfectly good one.  Following the metaphor,as the baby bird must make an effort to crack the egg, we must make an effort to hatch and grow.   Yet the egg has offered security and safety; why would the bird even endeavor to leave a nice place, especially when effort is involved?  Does it naturally feel a need?  An urge?  Just knows the surroundings are beginning to feel cramped? What keeps us stagnating in the "same" place daily, allows us to feel satisfied with "the way we are."  Is it difficulty or is it fear?  Are we afraid if we take that step to hatch the egg and leave the nest that predators may attack? Fear can be immobilizing, but apathy can be debelitating.  

 If the baby bird were to avoid that natural push to peck away, how much longer would the security last before dying and death set in?  If we avoid our true nature, what becomes of us?  Do we stagnate, shrivel up, and eventually die to any possible new growth?  What of the differences we could make for those around us?  We affect others whether we mean to or not; whether for better or worse.  Believing all is well doesn't mean all is well. 

So maybe we should make an effort each day to challenge ourselves to be just a bit more; to help just a bit more; to try just a bit harder; and to make just a bit of difference in the world that surrounds us.  Remaining in the egg may seem easier, but "things are not always what they seem."

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