The Crow and the Crone, Thy Will Be Done

As I saddled up in my purple wheelchair, with one pup on my lap and my other hairless buddy by my side, we noticed a mocking bird in full warrior battle cry.  I looked up and saw the air show overhead, as a parental squad of mocking birds tag teamed a jet black crow who was lurking for fresh hatchlings.  I watched the fray for a few moments and noticed the stirrings of my own mother hen mental story.  I so wanted to help chase away the crow and protect the baby birds.

Just a few days prior, I saw a crow snap up a fledgling in mid air despite fervent attempts by the parents to chase the predator away.  The crow landed in the middle of my neighbor’s driveway and began to devour the meal as the parents continued to dive bomb a lost cause.

When I was young and under the attentive eye of my own parents, Dad and I would watch, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.   I understood at an early age that everything needs to eat, yet it always seemed they would cut to a commercial break right before the fluffy bunny became dinner for the cougar and her cubs.

It seems, there is something programmed in our still evolving brain that trips when we witness the pas de duex of the hunt.  Yet everything does need to eat, and although my vegetarian lifestyle choice works for me, I understand completely that no amount of tofu was going to appease that crow on this morning.

But still, the thought of the baby bird becoming breakfast was so hard for me to swallow.  In my mind, I thought … Why doesn’t that crow go and eat one of the toads or lizards in my back yard instead?! But then I realized, the toad and lizard are just as much alive and enmeshed in their own community as the new peep in the nest.

I sat quietly and watched the show in the tree tops, as my own mental story began to settle and the gap between what is and what I wanted narrowed ever so slightly. And for a moment  … it was easy to see the unimportance of my will … and that as always, thy will be done.