Well it was good I had a rare flow experience in July, because come August, I had to set every single one of my creative endeavors aside, as one of my children was hospitalized quite suddenly due to a severe illness. I'm the kind of person who doesn't deal well with medical procedures, whether small like blood tests or big like operations, and have always thought I could never be a nurse because of my proneness to faint in situations like these. Who would have known I would ever stick a needle into anyone, let alone into my own child? My mother remarked in the middle of our crisis that this must be my destiny, because I have always been good at needlework. This thought is what I held onto while taking my first steps in basic nursing skills. I'm a crafty person who can learn pretty much any skill of the hands, and this is going to be one of them. It's astonishing how life-long inabilities can be overcome for the sake of a child.
After we had all been home for a few weeks, we went outside one morning and discovered a young sinitiainen (blue tit) sitting on our deck near the wall. It was immediately clear that something was wrong, because it seemed unable to move away from us but just sat there all shuddering and miserable. We figured it must have flown into our window, and it was such a sad feeling to realize that there was probably not much we could do for it. We started talking about maybe moving it to a more sheltered place, and I took out our bird book wondering if we could find anything for it to eat. After observing it for some time we went inside, and about fifteen minutes later when I went to see how it was doing, it was gone! It had miraculously recovered enough to fly to a nearby birch, and soon a little further to a spruce, where it went bustling about in search for food. After the meal it tucked its head into its wing and went to sleep.
What joy to be here today posting these two stories of survival! It is absolutely incomprehensible and unacceptable that the health of anyone small should ever be in danger, but if anything good can be said to have come out of this family crisis, it is that I value and love what I have even more. Spread your wings, little ones!
