Friday, June 14, 2013

Chicks


                                             

Chicks…
June 13, 2013


There are 13 of them in front of me at this current moment… It is 6pm on a glorious Los Angeles evening… The air is cool like an East Coast Fall day. School is out for the summer and I am sitting at my desk (aka the dining room table) observing the estrogen dancing on the deck through the glass doors.

Let me break it down for you:

THERE ARE 7 LITTLE GIRLS: 2 nine year olds, 2 five year olds, 1 six year old, 2 two year olds, 5 three week old baby chickens…and 1 feline pacing waiting for a chance to attack...(not me…our cat Roxy)...

Regardless of their species, they are all animals. I am a girl and I still do not understand them.

They have decided to have a dance party celebrating the end of school… the little girls are mimicking the moves of the baby chicks.

Their laughter is contagious…they are pure joy… and then someone screams and jolts me back to another reality… it is like the matrix…different realities all going at the same time. Today I am moving gracefully between them all… the tears don’t phase me… the screams don’t phase me. I remind myself that this is life, the pain… the joy…

Something silences them and they call for me…

“Mommy, Mommmy… come quick….the chicks are all ganging up on “Butterscotch” (our littlest chick).

I laugh to myself at the irony of these little girls, beside themselves at the pecking order and family dynamics going on between the chicks.

I have questioned myself many times since the chicks arrival… WHAT WAS I THINKING???

Sanity check… like I needed any more poop to clean up!

However, here in this moment, as I watch my girls learning so much from our five newest additions learning to get along… I am in love with these cute chicks! I listen to the girls talk amongst themselves and to the chicks, “you must not hurt your sister… you will feel better if you take care of her…” as she pushes another kid out of the way to get a better vantage point.

At what point do they learn that if your gonna do the talk you gotta do the walk?

The chicks are learning to fly and I see them flutterring away from the grasps of sticky hands and kids all up in their business.

“Be gentle with them…” someone yells.

“Listen to her...she is telling you she wants to get down… listen and you will here what she wants!” as the chicks are tweeting away frantically.

These five little chicks arrived in our home three weeks ago at a day old (I wanted to make sure no Roosters were included…)

A day old and already away from their Mom's…two were from one home, two from another and one from another. We have watched them navigate their first three weeks on their own and create a family unit.

My girls have assumed the role of Mother hen and I find it quite amusing as I watch them explaining the game of life and how to play it to these tiny little chicks (who are probably thinking, “HELP I’VE BEEN TAKEN BY AN ALIEN!”)

“Lets all take a walk and clear our heads…” I hear these words and shift realities… Who said that?

I look out on the deck and see the human girls all in a line. They are attempting to wrangle the chicks to follow their lead…

“It’s important to let each go their own way…” The nine year olds are attempting to share their years of experience with the little one’s…

“Watch… some will lead and some will follow…”

The humans stop the line dance and sit… the chicks all scurry about as the humans simply sit and observe…

Just as I am doing…

Observing, listening and learning so much…












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