Rebirth

I have a little glass container at home that holds shards of broken bird eggs. Mostly robins’ eggs because that is what we have the most of in our neighborhood. My husband and I go out for daily walks with our dogs and on the glorious occasion when I see one of these partial treasures, I carefully cradle it on the walk home and add it to my collection.

To me that egg represents the birth of something new. The generative nature of life on this earth.

With life teeming all around us, it’s interesting how easy it is as humans to get stuck. We can get attached to things as simple as hairstyles. Or we can remain fastened to more complex things such as how we react to others.

I remember being invited to a bat mitzvah once. I had never been to one of these before, and I thought it was a wonderful recognition of this young woman’s transition from being a child to becoming an adult. What an incredible rite of passage and opportunity for celebration.

I think we pass through many rites of passages in our lives. Lewis Carroll reminds us of this—both whimsically and metaphorically—in his book, Alice in Wonderland. Here is one quote as an example:  “Who are You?” said the Caterpillar. “I…I hardly know, Sir, just at present,” Alice replied, rather shyly. “At least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”

We have robins that lay eggs each spring in a nest outside our bedroom window. It is a family event to watch the robins preparing the nest, laying the eggs, and then caring for the young, tender brood up until and long after they’ve left the nest. The thing is, we need that when we’re emerging into a new world. We need to be nourished to build our strength to survive. It takes two robins working non-stop to get the baby robins to fledge and then to care and protect the younglings until they’re ready to be on their own.

Maybe this is why I keep that glass jar of shattered eggshells; symbolic remnants of birth. A reminder of rebirth and the need for self love and self nurturing to prepare for life’s next phase.