Time to Fly!

Recently I saw a couple of young mockingbirds that had been pushed from the nest by their mother. They were on the ground and fluttering about attempting to fly. Mother was watching over them and even swooped down at me a couple of times when she felt I was too close. I was witness to how hard and cruel life can be. Those young birds have to figure out how to fly or become easy prey, and their mother can't help them. She's done everything she can for them. She built them a nest. She incubated them while they grew in their eggs. After they hatched she fed them when they were hungry, and protected them from the elements. Now, they have to fly, so she did what mother birds do and set them free.

On the same morning my son turned eighteen - an adult. He got up, showered, got dressed, grabbed a bag he had packed the night before and headed to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) in Knoxville. The next day he was poked, prodded, measured, questioned, tested, and made to walk like a duck (look it up). After his ordeal was finished he signed a six year contract with the United States Air Force and is currently in the delayed entry program (DEP) awaiting his assignment.

I feel a lot like that mother bird. I gave him a safe home. I fed him. I protected him. I taught him everything I could, but now, he has to fly - and on his own. My little bird grew to be a man, and I have to set him free.