I’ve been watching the birds and enjoying their progression. While a few days ago the little birdies were just sleeping fuzz balls, they’ve come to life now. The mama keeps leaving them to get more food, and then she comes back to their excited little beaks. She feeds them by regurgitating her food and they clamor and peck to get to her beak first. Then, after a brief cuddle, she’s off again to get more grub.
The first few times that she left, the boys were really anxious. Where did she go? Was she abandoning the birdies? How would we raise them? With a huge sigh of relief, the boys would then give me the play-by-play as she returned. “She’s back!” Amichai would yell, and everyone would come running. Now, her errands are routine and we are getting used to watching her feed the babies and then fly away.
Here is a good shot of one of the birdies.
One of the kids asked this morning what would come next. How and when would the birdies leave? Of course, Josh and I don’t know when, but Josh explained that at some point, she would push them out and watch them fly. Push them out? I thought to myself. Holy cow – will she really?
As usual, these birds became a great metaphor for parenting. We provide the warm home for the birdies, bring them into the world, feed and nurture them, and then, at some point, we push them out and on their way.
The trick, of course, is to know when to push – and how big of a push to give.
On an entirely different subject…today I went to the grocery store here in the yishuv, and I was amazed, as usual, at how great certain things are here in Israel. I don’t have much extra time in my day for things like grocery shopping, going to the cleaners, etc. (Who has time for such things?) So, when I need to do a grocery shopping, we have a great store in the yishuv. It’s a bit more expensive than going somewhere else – but it’s right here and I can only fit so much into a packed day.
And what’s better – they deliver! But the best part is that they will deliver without me having to even stand in line or pack my groceries. Today, I challenged myself to see how fast my turn-around time could be. I entered the store at 12:25 and ran around gathering up everything that I needed and throwing it into the cart. Then, I drove the cart up to the front of the store, waved to Shulamit who is in charge of the cash register, and declared, “Delivery Shulamit!” At 12:31 I was out the door and off to my exercise! The groceries were packed and delivered right to my home in a matter of an hour or two. (Yes, I should have sent my “green” bags, but I forgot to do so.)
Now, if only I could find someone to unpack everything and cook hearty meals all week long for us, free of charge!