Stop Messing With Nature

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”~ Russell Baker

Welcome to the beginning of July in the year 2014. For those of you who have been waiting for it, please be patient. The bitchy blog posts about heat, humidity, and unbearable air temperatures during summer are coming. Just not yet. Hang in there!

But in all seriousness- let’s have a chat. Just you and I.

For those of you that have been paying attention, you know that there’s a nest full of barn swallows and right now is the time that these birds are being born and eggs are hatching.

Round two is happening currently as we speak for this year/season. The birds have hatched and they are just about ready to learn how to fly. I don’t know for sure whether or not we’ll have a third round of eggs. It is rare but has happened before.

But as with every year, there’s bird drama. And it happened yesterday evening when I heard a bunch of voices of children hanging around my front door.

One of the baby birds had accidentally fallen out of the nest and was on the ground. Its neck seemingly broken as it was able to twist it in ways humans can’t even dream of. But I don’t know for sure whether or not barn swallows have that same neck structure as say, an owl does. Able to turn it directly behind itself and look.

Whatever it was, it had caused one of the “bird parents” to come down from there nest and perch upon a shopping cart that got left on my patio area… watching its young struggle to move about. It had not yet learned how to fly at this point, so it was really at a poor disadvantage.

However if we have learned anything by having these birds come and build their nests is that you do not mess with the young. You do not touch any of the birds. And you must certainly do not touch any of the baby birds that may have fallen out of the nest. Its just nature happening. As sad as it may be. 

A few summers ago, our maintenance guy decided to mess with the nest by flashing an LED light inside while the birds were sleeping. Maintenance was attacked viciously to the point where he became paranoid about birds if he had to come over to my home.

A social services coordinator attempted to lift a baby bird back into the nest because it had fallen out. That bird (even though was returned from the nest) was forced out of the nest again and landed on the ground and soon after that perished.

The lessons came quick. DO NOT TOUCH THE BIRDS. DO NOT INTERVENE WITH THE BIRDS. DO NOT HANDLE THE BIRDS.

Once a human being does that, then the adult birds stop caring for it and force it away where it actually is left to die.

Granted, barn swallows are not very large birds in size. But birds are birds. And to this day I do not know why they trust me, but they do. Enough to build their nests and enough to NOT attack me when I come out of my front door to do whatever it is that I need to do that day. 

Usually the adult birds will just fly away, swoop around, and come back to the nest once I have cleared the area.

These children last night however, were hovering and circling around this one bird that unfortunately fell out of the nest. I warned the children not to touch the baby bird. I warned them to stay away from the baby bird because the adults would come after them.

I’ve seen it happen before. Birds will defend their own.

And instead of paying attention to me and listening, the oldest child of the group took off her jacket and wrapped the baby bird with the sleeve of the jacket and picked it up. The adult birds were flying back and forth in a super rage. It was horrible to watch. And it had to be terrifying for the birds to watch their young being picked up and carried away. 

Since someone touched the bird, the adults left it alone. The kids took off with it but then minutes later came back with it and put it back on the same spot on the ground as they picked it up. But it was too late. The adult birds already abandoned it.

So this morning, I find the adult birds still perched lower to the ground, but the baby bird was on the ground and had not survived.

And to think that this bird would have had a fighting chance as it struggled to move. Just a crash course in learning how to fly and it would have lived and been okay and probably in the future, been something that laid its own eggs.

Again human nature got in the way and spoiled everything for this winged baby. Sealing its doomed fate.

As difficult as it may be for some adults, we’ve got to learn to leave animals alone. Even while the animals are “in their hour of need.”

If the young of an animal will be abandoned if interfered with by humans, then yes – just leave them alone and hope and pray for the best.

The Mind Moult

“I purge compulsively. I’m constantly shedding things.”~ Andrew Su

Most of us already know how a snake will shed its skin many times throughout its life. The shedding (or “moulting”) process to some, is a fascinating phenomenon.

And still we as human beings in our own ways go through our own shedding or moulting process as we ultimately grow and mature.

Our ways of thinking of how the world works that we once believed in ten, even twenty years ago is far different than what we believe today. Mainly because we have learned and matured. Others are just simply left behind wearing the same skin.

I simply believe that we begin that moulting process over again once we have a life experience that we have learned from in the end. I would be lying to you if I was to tell you that my life is the same as it was a year ago… even six months. Even six weeks!! 

There’s nothing wrong with learning. There’s nothing wrong with experiencing life. Even if it burns you. As long as you learn to STOP putting your hands in the fire. No fire, no pain.

Throughout the three years of me writing on this blog, I’ve continually come back to the analogy of coming to a cross roads. It seems to be happening for me (not TO me) more frequently than others. But I cannot say that with absolute certainty. I just know that I find myself a lot in thought about … “Where do I go from here?”

Sure, change is scary. But so is the prospect of not living and not dreaming and not following those dreams. Sure, I’ve been knocked back countless times. And quite possibly I get knocked back more than the average person based on my life. But I keep getting back up.

Shed your old skin.

And as I rise, I moult that skin. I come back to my feet a seemingly newer person. Even though I am and always will be the same ole Dambreaker that you all know and love- right? Umm…. RIGHT????

So understand very clearly when I say not to fear to live the snake. I’m not talking about deceiving people and what not. I’m not talking about the stereotypes of the serpent. In fact I am talking about shedding your old skin and your old life and being open to a new skin with new experiences. Learn and grown and mature.

This blog might even see some changes soon. And it will be exciting.

And to my ever faithful readers, it will be okay. I will not lead you into danger.

Stay tuned.

 

Captain Red Pen

This morning I found myself involved in reading an article online that was talking about a specific interest of mine that dealt with a few people that I know by name.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I know these people personally, but I have traded correspondence with them in many different times.

And as I was sitting there happily with the opportunity to learn more about these people, the flow of the article had a hiccup as I noticed a typo.

Then it happened again. Another typo. And then another. Then another. Then another.

Five, six, even seven times that I recall with these grammatical errors that kept happening.

It obviously wasn’t just a simple typo. Apparently the conjugation of the word “debut” was tripping the author up pretty bad.

Or at least it was tripping me up from being able to read it with comfort and pleasure.

And I understand that everyone on the planet is going to slip and have some kind of error once in a while. Some more frequently than others.

The joy suddenly was gone. It had vanished. The thought of getting to know someone by this article was washed over by the insurmountable number of writing errors. Like I said, it wasn’t a typo… like typing the wrong key on the keyboard next to the appropriate one by mistake. This was horrible grammar and bad language skills.

It was then that I thought about introducing an alter ego.

CAPTAIN RED PEN

Able to catch and mark errors in a single stroke!!!!

Although I am pretty sure that Captain Red Pen would not be a beloved character for any comic or book or story. As a matter of fact, I kind of believe that Captain Red Pen would be somewhat hated and loathed. Hated by those who suffer under the indictment of the American education system and/or their lack of simply trying during their education. 

A mistake is one thing. A full article of them is another. And it just takes away from the message that the author was trying to put across to their readers and makes them shake their head thinking about things other than what they were just reading about.

But how do you feel about it? Do you find it helpful or just annoying when people come to you and point out a mistake that you made?

I am kind of on the fence about it. I get really frustrated when things like the events of this morning happen. But then again if I was to be writing on something that was really important, I would want to know if there was something that was needing correction.

One thing is for sure about me, reading the constant error of the word “DEFINATELY” really just sets fires to my bushes!!!

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y

Not definately. And not defianetly.

So I may just mull around the idea of Captain Red Pen coming to life. I’m sure that we’ve all had a moment or two in life where we really wanted our own red pens to come to the surface. Some of us has had the courage to use it, others have not.

What do you think? Tell me in the comments below.