Leaving the Nest

HELEN R. CONROYD

Parent birds devote much of their time to protecting, feeding, and caring for their fledglings until the time comes for the young birds to leave the nest. The eager ones, with great fluttering, take off on their own. But what if there should be a reluctant one? What happens to him? He is gently, but firmly, pushed from the nest.

I used to think that was an act of cruelty. But it isn't; and most often it isn't cruel even in our family experience. It is not wisdom for parents to hold on possessively to their children, nor for children to cling to their parents into adulthood. Nor for wives to be dependent on their husbands or husbands on their wives. There is one Father, one Mother, one actual source on which we depend: God.

To be our brother's keeper does not mean to keep family members bound to us. In cutting the ties that bind too tightly, that limit individual progress, we do not sever our relationships. Rather we grow closer to our Father-Mother God, and so even closer to one another within the family circle.

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