Waiting

A mother robin decided to build her nest on the edge of my front porch. I can see the nest from my living room window. That was no accident.

I tried several times to discourage her from building a nest there... I get a lot of traffic on my front porch, UPS, Fed Ex, friends, family, co-workers, me... I was concerned she might abandon her eggs with all the comings and goings.

But she persevered... She is a lesson to me in waiting. She has worked so hard to prepare her nest. It took her three days from morning until night to build it. She is a hard worker.

Now it is time to nest... wait... She has done all that she can to prepare. She is just waiting for them to hatch.

I feel a kindred spirit with her... I have done all I can do to prepare for a child(ren). Now, I just have to wait.

I watch her sitting on that nest. It is boring. Birds are coming and going, life is going on around her. She is just sitting. It feels almost like she isn't doing anything but stopping her life... waiting...

She gets up and does a little dance. She walks around the nest and turns the eggs. She sings to them. She watches over them. She is probably cold and tired... but soon, once they hatch, she will work from sun up to sun down caring for them. I have seen a mother bird care for her babies before and it is exhausting... knowing this, she might be enjoying this time of rest.

She is preparing for what is to come... and so am I.

Here is a video from last week.
The male robin is checking out the nest and then the female robin swoops in.
(The noise is the camera focusing. You can turn down the sound, it is annoying.)