Nesting

My husband and I found a bird's nest while doing some gardening over the weekend.  It made me think about our homes (as humans) and what it means to create a comfortable, nest-like abode.  What makes a home?  Is it what it is made of?  Or is it the stuff that's in it?  Birds use twigs, leaves, and other organic materials to create the perfect home for their eggs.  There is nothing much to a nest.  The simplicity is strikingly beautiful and natural.  There was nothing in it but what it was made of.  Nests are designed and built for raising offspring within its bowl shape until they are big and strong enough to build nests of their own.  Now abandoned, the nest we found was empty of life, but somehow, it told a story.  The little chicks looks out into the world from their nest and examined the skies which they would travel to find food.  They felt the wind and maybe the rain for nests don't have walls or a roof.  We as humans build our homes solidly out of concrete, steel, glass and timbers and then fill them with stuff.  The building materials which construct the structure of our homes no matter what the style when complete are pretty much the same.  It's what we fill our homes with that define how we feel when we live in them.  Furniture, lights, fixtures, and knick-knacks define spaces in our homes and tell the story of who we are.  The stuff we surround ourselves with define our tastes and what we feel is important to set us apart as individuals.  But how much stuff do we really need?  The sparseness of the bird's nest we found prompted me to ponder just that question.  I suddenly wanted to pare down everything in our home.  I had an itch to have a garage sale or put together boxes of our unused stuff for donation and get rid of everything that wasn't "necessary."  What more do we need than the essentials?  Isn't it enough to have just the nest itself and a few twigs and leaves to feel safe and secure?  I decided to start in our bedroom.  I looked around and started evaluating what we had.  The bed.  Okay, we need that.  The dresser.  That keeps our unmentionables organized.  Picture frames.  That's our wall of memories filled with faces and places we love.  The TV.  Too much of a hassle to take off the swivel wall mount and besides, my husband would most definitely kill me if I gave that away.  Everything in our bedroom was in it's purposeful place.  Organized and designed to fit our needs just-so.  I paced around with an empty file box for about 10 minutes and realized that I couldn't get rid of any of our "stuff."  Maybe the living room?  Same outcome with me standing with an empty box on my hip.  Each item had a reason, a story.  Each pillow and vase had a place and made the "look" complete.  Maybe that's what makes our homes what they are?  My stuff paired with his stuff and the culmination of it all is our home.  Our nest.  I walked back to the garage and broke down the box.  I couldn't fill it with anything.  At least, not yet.  Unlike the bird's nest with it's stark simplicity of construction and lack of obvious flare, our home is a work in progress.  One year the cabinets were finished wood, the next year they were red.  I looked closely at the nest and realized that towards the bottom on the outside, there was a piece of pink yarn expertly threaded through some of the twigs.  I examined further and lo-and-behold, a tiny piece of green plastic, a thread of yellow string, a taupe carpet strand... "I stand corrected, this nest did have flare!"  There was evidence that the builder of the nest chose stuff to make it as unique and like no other.  I placed the found nest on a shelf to help me remember that individuality is essential and stuff one loves is not bad.  It all just adds up to make the perfect nest.