Gone With The Wind

It had poured last night. The crisp morning air was refreshing. However, I sensed something amiss the moment I walked out of my bedroom. I tried to clear my groggy head with a deep breath of the brisk air and it suddenly hit me. It was too quiet.

Mervin and Angel were as usual screaming their lungs out in the living room. Those are noise I’ve grown immune to. It’s something else that was missing.

Instinct brought me to the kitchen window. The Yellow Bird was not chirping its usual pleasant high-pitch chirrups. In fact it wasn’t even hovering around.

I poked my head out of the window and what I dreaded most came into full view. The nest was gone, save for a few stranded twigs shivering in the cold wind. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that all the hard work of the Yellow Bird for the past few days was destroyed in just one night. For a moment, my mind went blank. It was just yesterday when all was full of hope. I had unconsciously been looking forward to the beginning of a new life and dreams just shattered overnight.

I caught myself before I started screaming unfair. I’m a firm believer that all things happen for a reason. If things are looked at a different angle, you may discover that it is not that ugly after all.

I count it a blessing that the nest was taken down with no casualties. Imagine if the nest is completed with the inability to face the storm and eggs are hatched in it, it will be far more heart wrenching when the inevitable happens. It is perhaps a benevolent wake-up call from nature to the Yellow Bird to put together a stronger house for its nestlings or to look for a more suitable ground to build its nest.

Rachel has been complaining about her classmate who likes to criticize others, including her. My advice to her is to keep an open mind and reflect on ourselves if things are like what her friend commented? If yes, we strive to correct ourselves. If no, we shall congratulate ourselves and keep in mind to keep away from the misdeed. Instead of begrudging her friend, she should be grateful to her for bringing things to light.

Mervin is a renowned chatterbox and jester in class. Most of his teachers have feedback to me that he so love to babble in class and clown around. However, his form teacher enlightens me with a different view. She exclaims that boys are by natural more active than girls. And he is in fact being articulate and creating a joyous learning environment. The most important thing is he still respects his teachers and friends. He’ll never do anything overboard.

Angel is an aftermath of a bilingual-approach-went-wrong disaster. To polish up her command of English without any Mandarin jargons, we encourage her to speak proper English most of the time. It’s a slow and painful process but nonetheless she manages to break up an otherwise tense situation. She was arguing this evening with Rachel and the situation intensified with both of them raising their voices. Rachel uttered a few curses and shouted once again, “Stop stepping on my mattress!” Angel refused to back down and retorted, “Then you don’t lie down on my side of sleep!” There was a brief silence. Then all of us broke into laughter uncontrollably.

There are always two sides of a coin. Today, the Yellow Bird lost its nest. I, in turn, get back my mop. Well, that may not be such a good thing to say. Let’s say that the Yellow Bird will be able to find a better place to build a better nest.

In memory of the nest, I shan’t use my mop for the next few days. Perhaps a week? Or a month?