Hope Springs Eternal
No doubt you are familiar with the phrase, "Hope springs eternal..."
After losing 5 of our chickens to a family of foxes last month, I am, again, raising baby chicks.
Five 1-day old chicks arrived in the mail two weeks ago and currently live in a large storage bin under a brooding light in our house. Several times a day, I check on them to make sure their water is clean, their food container is full, and that they are pooping easily. Baby chicks can "paste-up" if they can't poop--they can die.
In the first month, baby chicks can double in size each week.
It is also vital to spend time handling and socializing them in order to have hens who want to be around humans and are not afraid of people.
Thinking back, this is at least my 9th time raising baby chickens or ducks. Some adopted, some purchased; I have been a poultry mama since my oldest daughter was in nursery---she is now 16---and her class hatched ducks from eggs. Then, when school was ending for the summer, they needed a place to go in the country. And so, my journey began...
While, over more than 10 years, many were lost to predators; hawks, raccoons, and, most recently, foxes; nonetheless, most thrive and some were adopted by my children's other preschool when we moved to the Berkshires.
Every new flock revives fond memories of when my children were so young and excited to have little peeping downy birds in the house. Then, the pure magic of finding the first egg of each pullet turned hen. Egg laying is a sort of right-of-passage for chickens.
The chic phase is still sweet; but, it is the payoff of the first egg that makes the 5 weeks of round-the-clock care and 5 months of waiting all worth it.
There are many endeavors that we undertake where we are not successful the first time around. However, like nurturing the chicks to hen-hood, so too must we nurture ourselves. Step-by-step, we develop a mental checklist of what creates success. Then, we try and try again. That is what builds resilience.
In life, it is not that we aren't going to fall or fail. Instead, how quickly we get back up and try again measures our emotional, mental, and physical health.
Imagine if we only had our hearts broken once in life? Many of us would be done with relationships by middle school.
The lure of the magic, the excitement, the love, the payoff is what keeps us trying, showing up, and giving it our all.
Join me this week to work on resilience on the mat, so you can take it off and into the world.
No chicken required.
with so much love,
Kari