Resilience(n.)-the ability to be happy or successful again after something difficult or bad has happened.

Spring came with all the shock and awe of the yearly resurrection. And into the corner of our carport came an Eastern Phoebe pair. They carefully made a snug little nest and filled it with eggs that became chicks. The chicks progressed, wearing out their exhausted parents, greedy little mouths always wide open. Over the days, they grew bigger until you could just make out the four little heads above the edge of the nest. And then disaster. We walked out one day and the whole nest and all the chicks were gone, most likely having fallen victim to a hawk or an owl or a snake. Only a forlorn bit of moss remained. One of the parents sat nearby on the power line nearby, silent.

We were crushed. In the days that followed, every time I walked out and saw the empty space I felt bereft. I know it’s the circle of life and all that, but they never had a chance, never got to fly even one time, never got to do what they were made to do. And their poor little parents that worked so hard. Well, it was just sad.

So, imagine my surprise as after a time they began to rebuild that nest, carefully re-layering twigs and lining with moss until they again had a beautiful little nest that they promptly filled with four more eggs. Eggs that hatched into pink, fuzzy, alien creatures with faces only a mother could love. These grew and became feathered and began to look like their parents and we were again treated to four little heads above the rim of the nest looking out at us. We held our breath.

Then it came to pass that they left the nest and sat out on the ledge, getting their courage up I suppose. One by one they fledged, hanging around in our azaleas until they left for parts unknown. Until there was only one. He sat there on the ledge for a full 24 hours, and as I had heard Barred Owls in the trees, I encouraged him to hurry up and fly away. I came around the corner the next morning just in time to watch him leave the ledge and take to the sky. He did not look back.

I still see them, or their parents, in our yard from time to time, and it makes me smile, and remember that there is a lesson for me too. It’s a tough world, and life can be brutal and without mercy sometimes, but beautiful and miraculous. And there is also beauty in finding the courage and resilience to start again.

“It’s an old song, but we’re going to sing it again.”-Hadestown