In Which There is a Tough Decision and an Important Lesson

Ostara is coming up at the end of the month and I've been turning my mind to the things I want to see grow and thrive in my life. I've been diligent in establishing healthy routines to help support the growth of a healthy lifestyle, have been watchful of my spending and budget, and thoughtful about how and where I spend my time throughout my days.

So on Monday when I came home from a weekend of visiting friends and noticed that a beautiful bird's nest had appeared in the holiday wreath on the front door, I delighted in the symbolism. Over the next few days, I spooked the mother bird going to (and returning) from the gym in the early hours. She was living on our door! I was really happy and even felt a little blessed (Disney may have given my inner child strange notions about the joy of wee birds that years of having to deal with the noisy bastards has yet to demolish).

A friend from my college days who is an avid bird watcher warned me that the nest looked like it might belong to the House Sparrow, which is an insidious invasive species that pecks baby bluebirds to death in their nests. I didn't want to believe it and decided that I'd make the call if any eggs showed up -- I assumed that our comings and goings from the apartment would deter the mother from getting comfortable and that I'd never have to make the difficult decision.

This morning, however, I noticed a lone egg. I knew deep down that my worries were confirmed, but looked up the ID just in case. It is, of course, a house sparrow. Balls.

It's tough because I really love life and nature and how wild things reclaim habitat in spaces where humans have taken over. I love seeing nature persevere in the face of our hubris. In this case, though, removing this bit of nature that mankind removed from its natural habitat and introduced to North America allows for other bits of nature to survive.

While I was discussing this with a friend and mentioned my struggles with the timing of Ostara, I realized that this is a pretty good message as far as symbols go -- that we need to make sure that the things we're allowing to take root and thrive in our lives are things that are healthy. Something might look nice and and make you feel good, but it's important to know what impacts it will have on other areas of your internal ecosystem. It's not a pretty lesson to learn and it will be hard to remove the nest and dispose of the egg this weekend, but it's necessary. May we all have the strength to identify and do what we must to encourage positive growth in our lives.