Baby Birds

I’ve been watching a nest of baby birds in the burning bush next to my house. At first, it was the momma sitting on her nest, day after day until eventually, the babies arrived.

Once in the world, the babies were of course, tiny and fluffy and didn’t look much like baby birds at all. As the days went on, they began to look more and more like the creature they were born to be. The fluff turned to feathers, their eyes opened and they were awake more often than not. And now, when I peek into the nest I see four small baby birds- probably almost ready to leave the nest.

Thinking about these baby birds, we can compare it to so many things in our life, right? Not only the bringing into the world of our own children, but also the birth of other things- such as a new venture, project, or a new business.

When we bring new things into the world, we bring pieces of ourselves. Pieces of our own personality, ways of doing things, values, and beliefs. If it’s a business or other venture, we also bring our creativity, our thoughts and ideas and unique approach.

When we first have children, we often have a pre-conceived notion of what they may look like, what we want their life to be like, and what we hope for them. At least- I had that. Sometimes however, things don’t go as planned- like I wrote about in the post titled “Isn’t Everything Supposed To Go Right?”. In such cases, we have to shift our views, shift our thought processes, and let go of that which we can’t control so that we can see what we have in front of us.

In an online group that I attend once a week, we discuss varying topics, and this months topic is “Intent”. So if I go back to the baby birds for a second, I think we can assume (on some level) that the momma bird’s intent is to care for her babies in the best way that she can. She leaves the nest to get food and bring it back. She squawks and lets me know she isn’t happy with me when I get too close. She keeps the babies covered when it’s cold or raining. Her intention is to do her best, and ATTENTION follows INTENTION. So her attention is placed on the tasks she needs to help her babies.

But what if- somewhere in that birdie brain of hers, she worries that one baby has a feather pattern that doesn’t seem quite right. Or- that one of the babies doesn’t seem to eat as well as the others. Or- she worries about the day when it’s time for her to “push them out of the nest”, because- “What if one of them doesn’t fly right away?”.

Now I know that I’m assigning a lot of potential “human” worries to this momma bird, but still- what if??

We, of course have these worries about our “baby birds” as well. Worries about the things we have “birthed”- be they our own human children, a project at work, or perhaps a business (if you’re an entrepreneur like I now am).

In any light, with any way you look at it, I think that worries are a natural part of “birthing” anything new. We, as human beings, like comfort. New things (even exciting new things) bring change, and change can be scary.

So what is my advice for all this? Or what message would I like you to gain from this post?

You know? I guess it goes back to “intention”.

ATTENTION follows INTENTION, so set the intention for what you want, put your attention on it, let go of the rest that you can’t control- and see what happens!

And if you need help setting that intention? Or wish you knew a way to set yourself up for success?

Hit me up- I’ve got tools for that.

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