Amelia, my sister-in-law wrote a bird story this last week. What a coincidence because I have a bird story too! Warning!!! This story does not have a happy ending and gives little to any value towards life’s learned lessons. By the way Amelia, I loved your story and your analogies to life.
A long time customer came into my store the other day and was distraught with what he had just done. He was having his swimming pool resurfaced and had to have it drained. While empty, he went out one morning to find 12 baby quail stranded in the deep end of the dry pool. With no mother bird in sight, he tried to think of safe place to let them go. He gathered them up into a cardboard box and took them to his nearby Alta Mesa Country club. It had a nice little lake. Near the water’s edge was a patch of dry land and some tall thick reed grass. This, he thought would be the perfect spot to free the fledglings and give them a fighting chance in the world. With a few last loving words of encouragement he rustled them from the box and sent them scampering into the grass. He sat for a moment and watched them as they seemed to adapt to their new surroundings. With a hitch to his step and a smile on his face he turned and started back towards his car. He then heard a thrashing and swishing sound from the grass behind him. He turned in time to both see and hear the distressed chirping of the little birds. They were surrounded by dozens of sewer rats! Within a few short moments, all of the quail were but feathers and dust. As he turned back towards his vehicle for the second time, his pace was slowed and his smile all but vanquished from his face. In his mind he toyed with the quote “give them liberty or give them death” ….Liberty, heck, I served them up on a silver platter!
Like, I said…Not a happy ending. As much as I would like to pull a moral from this story, my mind can’t seem to fathom one. The story was captivating for me to hear and left nothing to the imagination.
That time I traded romantic favors for money
12 years ago
2 comments:
Todd, you are right, quite a different story though I would actually argue that the same lesson applies- I find that the best way for me to attempt to live is by trying to do "the next right thing." Your customer attempting to provide the birds with a safe place to grow was obvisouly an example of doing the next right thing. But where we have to let go and let God comes in is- even when we do the next right thing, the results are not always what we expect- and in these cases what more can we do but let go and let God and trust he has a plan!
By the way- we enjoyed your story on Facebook regarding your closet organizing :)
I'll have to go searching for Amelia's story.. I must have missed it. But while I guess I agree with Amelia about it having some meaning.. That was the saddest story I have ever heard! The first thing I thought when the guy took them from the pool was that the mom bird was probably off finding food and was coming back shortly! I guess either way the guy thought he was doing something good!
I am so jealous that Holden is going to the rain!
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