Dear Friends, 

In January darkness, I find myself daydreaming about light and heat and fewer layers of clothes and blankets! I’m rereading Bernd Heinrich’s wonderful book, The Homing Instinct. It carries me off to southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert, to the sociable weaver birds that practice communal compound nesting. These sparrow-sized birds build massive nests like desert apartment buildings on the tops of spreading acacia trees or even telephone poles. What looks on the outside like a ramshackle bale of hay is, on the inside, a honeycomb of dozens of small round holes, chambers for egg tending, nurseries for young birds and shared housing for adults. Social weaver birds are cooperative even beyond family groups; birds from various parents share the work of feeding chicks, making repairs to the nest, and keeping watch for danger.  And these birds provide nesting and roosting space not only to other weaver birds but also to lovebirds, finches and even falcons. The nests function for decades, even centuries, and each new generation benefits from and contributes to the security and well-being of their shared inheritance.  

The lights flicker, Henry barks, and I pull up the blanket and stare into the early evening dark. I wonder about communal compound nesting for us. I suppose, to work it must involve sharing, but also love. Maybe I’m anticipating Valentine’s, or a long election year, but I think of Dr. King’s day coming up this month, and his ethic of agapic love.This love is not a feeling, but a practice. It is love as a verb that means understanding and acting for others, giving of ourselves without expecting anything in return. This is a love Jesus taught and lived, and it’s a verb that Christians are called to embody. We may think of it as noble and beautiful, but in practice it often looks more like a hay bale than a tidy house wren’s nest! Living together in all our differences requires a big, messy love. It will not be pure or graceful, and it requires us to keep giving of ourselves not just for a comfy January, but for the coming spring and summer and for each new generation’s benefit and the well-being of our shared inheritance.

Blessings and peace in this new year,

Becky