Birds Leaving the Nest

Over the last two weeks, I became fascinated by (and mildly obsessed with) a bird nest on my window sill. I had the great fortune of watching the nest filled first with tiny, slimy, feather-less and almost unrecognizable beings...that turned to not-quite-as-tiny and slightly feathered beings...that turned into plump, fully feathered siblings, squished into the nest, one on top of the other.

One of the four birds was clearly ready to fly before the rest. Each day, for several days, she would stand on top of her siblings (with seemingly no regard for the fact that she was standing on their heads) and practice flapping. One day, when she'd mustered up the courage, she flapped her wings with just a bit more might...and officially left the nest.

The remaining siblings left, one by one, until there was just one bird remaining. This bird didn't seem in such a rush to leave. This bird did not stand up and flap its wings to practice. This bird seemed perfectly content waiting it out in the nest, sitting peacefully, until he felt fully prepared to take flight.

Finally, one day, this fourth and bird departed - leaving a very literal empty nest on the windowsill. This was a rather bittersweet day.

I couldn't help but reflect, throughout this entire journey of the family of birds, how similar this progression felt to our current time. Each bird experiencing a different level of readiness, feeling a different level of safety leaving the nest, and taking flight at different times.

There's no "one size fits all" timeline or approach; we're all doing the best we can with the information that we have available.

Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve read, watched, or listened to in the last week, in relation to this time. These represent different perspectives, points of view, areas of expertise.

The Great Realization (YouTube)
Erin Bromage’s Blog (read) - excellent, factual information on how droplets work
Tony Robbins - Facts from the FrontLines (podcast episode) - an interesting set of perspectives from a panel. Disclaimer #1: I’m not a big Tony Robbins person. Disclaimer #2: this is not a conversation based in open inquiry and dialogue, from a neutral perspective. Tony is very strongly pushing his point of view and perspective throughout the entirety of this episode. Disclaimer #3: I found the way that many of the conversations talked about “old people” to be offensive and irritating. All of that said, the conversations and the information exchanged during them, were interesting.