I love this time of year. The Earth puts on an exuberant show of abundance and beauty, which is such a confirmation of life. My hot-pink tulips were a blessed sight during the recent and short-lived rainy weather. Soon the miniature lilies, gardenias and the jasmine bush will be blooming and filling the air with their heady scents.
Each day the mallards, geese, blue heron and other waterfowl fly low over my house several times a day to and from the nearby lakes. I can hear the familiar honking sound of the geese as the v-formation comes into view.
This is the second time that a quail couple has returned and selected a large flower pot on my patio in which to deposit their eggs. Last year I was delighted as I watched twelve little fluffy puffs of new life either rappel down the asparagus-fern fronds and land in a soft plump on the walkway, or simply say “Geronimo” [in quail-speak] and bravely bail out. The mother quail was around the corner calling to them and the baby quail did what generations of their ancestors had done and scampered straight to the sound of safety.
This year I discovered there were seventeen eggs. I never bothered to learn the gestation period, as I trusted my intuition to nudge me when it was time for the eggs to hatch.
Sure enough, one morning weeks later I was getting ready to leave for an appointment when something moved me to check the flower pot, which I could do by looking out the window. There before my eyes on the brickwork was an incredible scene--Mom and Dad and seventeen newly hatched dotting-and-darting bundles of life energy. I was mesmerized by the activity of what I thought was Life Survival Lesson No. 1. The baby quail were gathered in a loose, constantly wiggling and moving group. When they received their directions from the parents, they quickly scurried to another section of the patio. Then just as eagerly they hurried back for further instructions on how to make it through their first days.
When I returned home in mid-afternoon the whole family was still there. I delighted in watching them until dusk when the baby quail finally mastered the six-foot flight to the top of the patio wall and then they were all gone. My delight faded for a moment as I thought of how tiny and eager they were for life’s adventure, and what might await them. Yet, this was quickly replaced with the joy and gratitude I felt for this rare and blessed gift. It allowed me once again to connect up close and personal with nature, the true language of our being. I also knew the adults were doing exactly what quail parents have been doing since the dawn of their time on Earth, preparing the next generation for yet another spring.
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Copyright 2007 by Fern Stewart Welch
The author's book THE HEART KNOWS THE WAY--How to Follow Your Heart to a Conscious Connection with the Divine Spirit Within, is available from Amazon.com, other online booksellers and major book stores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders.
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