One spring following another - I've watched these two return to their familiar nesting ground and pond. He - spends his days tirelessly patrolling..keeping all predators at bay. She - sits hour after hour..day after day warming the eggs in their precious and precarious nest.
It's been a late-coming spring. Trees have been slow to color themselves green. Flowers have been even slower to blossom and bloom. We - persons - have taken a long time to shed our winter coats and skins.
The birds sing.
Oblivious to the cold..the wet..the inclement weather. Unaware that this spring's rhythm doesn't quite rhyme.
The birds sing.
They mate. They nest. They hatch babies. They're not waiting for the right time..the right place..the right moment. It's spring. They trust in their hearts. They trust in their internal compasses as guides.
A practice of returning. Season after season. Year after year.
They say that they mate for life. Through bountiful seasons or bare..through sickness or health..they love and they cherish 'til death do them part.
In the damp. In the grey. In the cold. Theses ugly little ducklings were - just today - hatched. They know nothing of late-coming springs. Only that they will grow..that they will love and mate..and that they - too - will someday hatch cygnets of their own.
The circle of life continues. On..and on.
5 comments:
Beautiful post, we would do well to take a page out of their book.
Marcie, beautifully written with an equally nice image! A wonderful life you live, in tune with and enjoying nature's rhythms.
Beautifully put. I was thinking the very same thing yesterday, even if we see it as late, all other things have that internal knowing that it just is.Love the photo too.
I worked at an office which had a very large pond behind the building; for an entire year I witnessed the life cycle of mated Swans; mating, hatching, rearing their young. I was known at the office as the Swan Lady; such a rich experience and my Heart still sings at the sight of Swans. Beautiful post; thanks for rekindling my memories.
what a wonderful post, i love the thoughts behind the story and the lovely concept that those swans no matter what will stick it out together till the end. We recently had a news item over here where a female swan was killed and she had an egg in the nest and the male started sitting on the egg, i'm not sure where that stands right now, but I loved that he stepped in and took over for the survival of the baby. so sweet
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