Circle of Life

The weather in the mid-west has been crazy. A few weeks ago a little bird was blown out of the tree outside our house. When I came out with the kids he was hopping around. E was concerned about him. He said, "Mom look at the bird. We need to pick him up." I looked at my darling boy and said, "Honey, circle of life, circle of life." Later on it hit me what I'd done. I grew up with a mother who was a sucker for animal rescue. We ended up with a dog because she saw the underfed flea bitten mutt chained up in someone's yard and offered to take her off their hands. More then one of our cats was an abandoned kitten and I to this day can remember her chasing our dog Sandy around the yard trying to extract some poor baby bird that had fallen out of a tree only to be picked up in big doggy jaws. She knew how to find the animal rescuer in town and would take little baby birds we'd tried to save there. You think with that example I'd have some compassion, some drive to do something more. I'd have a desire to instill the same love of all things precious and helpless in my child. In my heart though I am a biologist. I understand that even with help the chances of that baby bird making it were slim and there is no shame in entering the food chain. Predators have to eat. It is the reason I always feel uncomfortable in the ocean or in the woods. Circle of life.