How safe do you feel? July 15, 2008
I love this time of year! One of my favorite things right now is to wake up to the sound of the birds outside. They are so pretty - my husband and I laugh at ourselves because we really enjoy sitting and watching birds in our backyard; we feel like we are a little old couple. In the last few years, we have had the opportunity to watch a type of bird called a killdeer lay and hatch their eggs in our yard. I know this happens all over the place and in most backyards. However, this particular mother bird has chosen for the last 2 years to lay her eggs about 5 inches off of our driveway right in our bark. There is no actual nest or twigs even - just on top of the bark. I have always thought this to be so interesting because it doesn’t appear to be a very safe place. But for 2 years in a row, this is her choice spot. I didn’t realize why she would do this until I walked up next to the eggs. When she felt I was getting a little too close, this mother bird would hobble off about 3-4 feet and act as if she was hurt and squak and squak to take all the attention away from her baby eggs. WIthout fail, this mother bird would do that each time in hopes that we would not notice her babies. I have never seen a bird do such a thing! She is so committed to her “duty” to protect her eggs that she would do all she could to accomplish her task. She is very good at it too!
With my psychological background, I often try to find links and comparisons to things I observe and make sense of them in my own experience. As I watched this mother bird create safety for her young eggs over and over again, it made me think about the times that I have felt the safest. Not in terms of physcial safety, but emotional safety; safe to express my emotions to others, safe to be myself, safe to explore new medical procedures…
Ask yourself how you can create more emotional safety in your life this week. It may be through your spouse or a friend. It may be through building greater confidence in yourself. As cheezy as it sounds to say this, “go be your own mother bird - no matter the cost!”