Egg

It takes 21 days for an egg to hatch. I have cradled an egg in my hand, fragile life in my hands. I've held a warm egg to my ear and heard the chick peeping inside and its mother's answering calls. I've seen the chick use its egg tooth to break away the shell encasing it. After many hours of struggling, I've witnessed it finally break free. I've lovingly placed a chick still soggy from its nutrient sac in my arms. I would stand there breathless, in awe of the miracle of life. On the side of the coin, I seen chicks to weak to break free lie in the shell, chirping frantically. I have helped these chicks out- knowing full well I shouldn't-mother nature has deemed the unfit for survival-only to sit there helpless as the die a few days later anyway. That has taught me a lesson as well. No matter how much I try to interfer with the natural cycle of life and death, things will happen as they are meant to in spite of all my efforts. I accepted the fact that I won't always grasp why nature works the way it does, or why innocent creatures have to die before they even lived. I've come to understand that life and death are unpredictable.