May 6, 2004

Nest

The upstairs bathroom window was barely open, but enough to let in the Carolina wren. She’d flown through three weeks ago and staked her claim on the white wooden shelf above the toilet.

Wedged between a bottle of Caladryl lotion and a box of Crest teeth-whitening strips, she sat on a nest of twigs and moss. The nest was soon filled with four brown-spotted eggs.

The other family that lived in that suburban home soon realized the bird was there to stay. So they went quietly about their business, brushing their teeth and taking showers. They left the window open and tried to keep from bumping into the nest. The wren left when they came in, perched on a nearby maple branch, and firmly admonished them until they were gone.

The family’s two children were recently off to college, effecting the inevitable parental withdrawal pains. Ms Wren probably wasn’t aware of all that when she moved in, but as it turned out, she made a pretty good pastoral call, anyhow.

Like C S Lewis said, joy is rather a surprise.

No Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.