life lessons from a chicken

My husband promised our daughters (6.5 and 5 years old) baby chicks when we got to Turkey. His father, the Turkish grandpa, got two hens before we came here. The girls named them Raspberry and Chocolate.

One afternoon I noticed a box in the chicken coop. It had holes in it for air.

I told Lila (my five-year-old) there was someone in the box and we should let them out so they don’t suffocate. We opened the box and let out a very fluffed up white rooster and a giant white hen with some rust stained feathers.

The rooster got whiter over time and we named him Snowball. The hen got even rustier, but we still named her Marshmallow.

The new hen, the one that came in the same box with the rooster, was very big. At times, she challenged the rooster. She was the first one to chase away the cat when it came near. “This hen has balls” we thought. My husband and I didn’t even call her Marshmallow anymore, we called her Alpha Female. And I was so proud that this girl was standing up for herself in the animal kingdom.

One late night, when we came back from a two-day road trip, the grandpa, who normally goes to sleep with the chickens, was still up to greet us. He was so excited!

“I have a surprise for you, kids!" he said.

We all go outside to the chicken coop, the headlights of the car lighting it up.

“Two baby chicks have hatched!!!”

They were tiny, fluffy little things, you could fit them in the palm of your hand. Total cuteness overload not just for the kids, but for us, adults.

The next day another one hatched, and one more the next day. We now have four chicks! And if you want a visual definition of "smothering", watch these girls pick up the chicks every two minutes to play with them.

After another four-day road trip to Ankara, the capital, my husband asks, “Did you notice that the rooster’s voice got deeper while we were away?”

But as it turned out later, it wasn’t the rooster whose voice got deeper. It was the Alpha Female who was making that noise! She turned out to be a rooster!

“But her crest is so small, how can she be a rooster?” I asked.

“He is still growing, and his crest IS getting bigger, look." I didn’t know roosters don’t start crowing until they mature.

He pulls his neck down, forward and up and crows like a grandpa, a faint scratchy sound barely escaping his vocal chords. Then his crowing becomes more confident. Now we call her The Hen Who is Actually a Rooster. 

Why am I telling you this story? Well, first of all, it’s funny. Second, it teaches us a powerful lesson about life.

How often do we jump to conclusions that something is not working, that something oughta be a certain way but it’s not and we just give up on it?

I can especially relate to it as an entrepreneur. When at times I put so much into my business but there seems to be no growth, there’s no sound of it getting to the next level. And I can relate to it as an artist. When I am agonizing over wanting to get getter, learning, trying out new techniques, but don't see any improvement.
 

But in reality, growth happens.

Slow, incremental, almost invisible growth, that when compounded, helps you make a quantum leap into a full blown cock-a-doodle-dooing giant rooster.

We just got to be patient, allowing that inner growth to take place, observing it and continuing the work.


With love and gratitude,

Francesca Bliss

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