Nature's Reminders

I love to go for my daily walks. I usually walk somewhere around the farm for 45 minutes or more. At first it was kind of annoying trying to find that many different routes and that much ground to cover {plus I was pretty out of shape and any kind of walking was just plain annoying} but since I've been walking six days a week for the past four weeks my walks are getting easier and therefore much more fun. Now, instead of focusing on the pain in my quads and the swelling in my feet or the 50 mph winds blowing in my face, I can focus on the beauty of the life surrounding me.

Today as I was walking down the hill past the dry cow facility I noticed a group of killdeer running in front of me. I'm not sure how long they had been there but their keening cries eventually woke me from my reverie and introduced me to an entirely new train of thought.

I watched as these three crazy killdeer ran up the road to just within a few feet of me and then as I got closer would jump up and run again. For those of you who aren't familiar with the habits of the killdeer bird let me explain the signifigance of this. These birds usually build their nests in the small rocks just off the side of the road, the rocks act as camoflouge for the eggs and in my experience the nests are very hard to find {although we were lucky enough to spot one once and got to watch over time as the babies hatched}. Since the nests are on the ground and therefore vulnerable to predators the mother and father bird will draw the attention from their offspring to themselves by crying in a loud high pitched voice. Sometimes they run ahead of a potential threat and lay as if injured, making themselves a target. But in most instances it works and they are able to draw any predators away from their young.

While I was watching these mysterious birds run away from me and pause and run away and pause, I started to think about the sacrifice they were making. I of course wasn't a threat to them {I don't even like scrambled killdeer eggs} but they didn't know that. To them I was just another hungry predator preying on their next generation and they were doing what instinct and time had taught them, that the sacrifice {of their own life if necessary} was essential in bringing up the future of their species. Protect the young, if they could talk, would be their mantra.

And then the spinning wheels in my head brought me back around to my own life, what have we forgotten in raising our children that nature never forgets? We have forgotten that our children are our greatest assets, that protecting them, raising them, sacrificing for them should be our greatest goal. They are of course our future and in saving them we save ourselves!