ItÂ’s day two of 2006.

When I awoke this morning and looked outside, I would have sworn it was still last night.

The sky is overcast and dark.  It is pouring rain.

It rained all night long with thunder and lightning.

Heavy rain.

I feel like raining myself.

What we had billed as a fun New YearÂ’s Eve full of family tradition took on a life of its own.  Unfortunately, the wildlife we cohabitate with here in this rural outback of Georgia made plans to celebrate in our hen house by dining on our precious flock of chickens.

It was awful.

Around 7 New Year’s Eve, I had stepped outside to call in the cats and heard our dogs barking the alarm barks as well as other “sounds” I’ve never heard before.

The summation of the aftermath:  “Something” or a “group of somethings” had entered our chicken house and set in motion a slaughter of about a third of our flock of heirloom chickens.  It wasnÂ’t until early morning on New YearÂ’s Day that we would be able to determine what remained of our flock.  At dark last night, we were able to finally coax the remaining surviving and still traumatized hens back into the chicken house for a final head count of 20 out of our original 30.

Ouch.  It really hurts and I have cried.

But I consider this a privileged life of choice.  And we have chosen to live a life surrounded by rural ness and with these surroundings the package includes wildlife.  It is, at best, a growing pain.  Life lessons are not always happy or easy ones to be learned.  We will regroup and move on.

However, in reflecting on the timing, my son seems to have captured a strong sense of these life lessons.  Perhaps it is Me, the parent, the mother, the homeschooling teacher, this woman flying by the seat of her pants in this life that has a great deal to learn in this New Year.

Meanwhile, I can not help but wonder if so many of the tragic events of 2005 have also resonated in my sub-conscious that in turn lends to the humbled somberness of our Christmas and now New YearÂ’s celebrations.  We have so much to be thankful for and I and my family have been blessed over and over again.  Recognizing the loss of life and lives lived from the all too compelling realities while we along with the world witnessed last yearÂ’s tsunami, the horrific aftermaths of this hurricane season, the war in Iraq continues, and of recent, the tragedy involving the plane crash of Gary Tillman, his daughter and two of her friends, much is put into perspective.

Harriette K. Jacobs

Copyright 2006

All Rights Reserved.