Being visited

There is this pigeon family, that has been visiting us for the last three years. Consistently. Incidentally the first year when the family visited us, there were a whole lot of 'firsts'. It was our 'first' year in our new home. We were expecting our 'first' baby. And we had our very 'first' visitor from the animal world.

To see the family prepare their home to usher in their li'l one was inspiring and also something that we could relate to. We were also doing the same in our world. Each morning was chai, biscuits along with observing the progress of our visitors. Then one morning over our chai session we discovered two eggs. And we followed the chai, biscuit pattern, till we saw li'l "chiclet" come out of his shell. By then, we had grown to become friends with his parents in a strange way. His mum had built an awkward kind of trust with us. She allowed us to watch her li'l one's journey of progress, his stumbled attempts to walk and become a li'l big bird preparing for hisfirst big flight. I want to believe that the family knew our state of expecting and was preparing us for our journey. Then one day, chiclet and his parents were gone. Sad - we didn't see chiclet make his first flight. The empty nest with one egg that didn't hatch was even sadder. The picture above is li'l chiclet making attempts to walk.

We continued our journey. Sia was born. We watched Sia begin her journey of progress, stumble with her first steps and the empty nest stayed on in our balcony. Somewhere Sia related to that empty nest all this while. Then one day what do we see, the nest is being occupied. And there was chiclet's mum. I knew it was her. I had imbibed her feel within me. And she knew me too. That's when I knew we had clicked and a soul bond was built - to last for a long while. Our visitor this time again laid two eggs. But sadly - they didn't hatch. We all mourned. We all moved on again.

But the family visited us again after a month. And laid three eggs. All hatched in their due time. We watched chiclet's siblings follow his journey all over again. This time with Sia. We were happy not to see them take off. Because by now, I had secretly assumed that the family would visit us more often. They had made their home and found their haven.

Now we have the pigeon family visiting us again. The nest still remains. Chiclet's mother is there in our balcony as I write. Preparing for yet another journey, another flight. This is one visitor, I would not mind dropping by for a very long time.