Nest

Bruno Liljefors, "Song Thrush at Nest"

Nest

It wasn’t until we got the Christmas tree 

into the house and up on the stand 

that our daughter discovered a small bird’s nest 

tucked among its needled branches.

Amazing, that the nest had made it 

all the way from Nova Scotia on a truck

mashed together with hundreds of other trees 

without being dislodged or crushed.

And now it made the tree feel wilder, 

a balsam fir growing in our living room, 

as though at any moment a bird might flutter 

through the house and return to the nest.

And yet, because we’d brought the tree indoors, 

we’d turned the nest into the first ornament. 

So we wound the tree with strings of lights, 

draped it with strands of red beads,

and added the other ornaments, then dropped 

two small brass bells into the nest, like eggs 

containing music, and hung a painted goldfinch 

from the branch above, as if to keep them warm.

Jefferey Harrison

This story is a perfect reminder - underneath all our ways of dressing things up, repeating habits and traditions, carefully presenting ourselves, inventing plans for dealing with any situation we might face - life is wild. Sometimes beautifully so, and sometimes otherwise.