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SPENCER'S SONG

New Year's Day came with much ado.  Usually, one wakes up groggy from being up late welcoming fireworks at the stroke of midnight, and singing "Auld Lang Syne",  (Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?)  to the theme of shaking off the former years, and starting a new.  

We managed to stay up an hour past midnight and that was a stretch for me, being an early riser. However, there were incredible firework displays New Year's Eve and I was enthralled like a kid.  I had to see each and every sparkle, flare, and bombs bursting in air until the entire atmosphere was clouded with smoke. 

It was difficult to rise and shine early the next day.  Yet, I decided to start a new tradition by taking the family out for breakfast, something we rarely do. I proceeded to get ready, giving out directives to my family to check on pets, making sure they were fed, letting them out, or in since our revolving door is always in motion.  As my husband was peeking into the cage of our new parent finches, he noticed the Papa finch in distress.  Somehow, he had managed to become tangled in the metal clasp of a hanging item.  He was frantically trying to fly out of it, all the while nearly ripping his leg out of socket as it profusely bled.  After a few minutes of trying to untangle the bird without success, my husband ran to his work truck to find a tool to cut the piece off.  

I held the finch in place as to not injure itself further, shouting, “Hurry!” My husband cut the metal piece and loosed the bird from the cage.  Holding the bleeding finch in my hand, I shouted for someone to get me a transportable bird box, towel, and keys.  I was not going to let this bird die!  

Spencer had become a part of our family the moment we brought him home last year.  He had also heart brokenly lost his pregnant mate over the summer.  Yet found love again producing four beautiful babies.  We had a mission of mending this little one!  Our New Year's plans were curtailed.

What Breakfast tradition?   Despite the teens protesting for their meal.  I swear food is the first thing on their mind when they wake!  They make a bee line to the fridge before saying, "Good morning" I could be on fire and the first place they would go to is the fridge before dousing me in water or calling 911! And then they stand in front of it... opening and closing repeatedly, as if something else is going to magically appear.   Is this some kind of upper body work out?

After about the fifth time of shutting the door, they walk away proclaiming there is nothing to eat, despite its appearance of groceries nearly busting through the walls.

They are a never ending eating machine! 

No one was dining until Spencer was fixed!  

Panicked, I quickly looked up places open on New Year's to treat him.  I felt every second mattered.  Deciding the Internet was taking too long, and automated phone calls, grabbed everyone and said, "Let's go!"  We jumped in the truck and headed out on the nearly empty highway driving from one end of our city to the other to no avail.  Being the holidays, most if not all Vets were closed!  And the one’s open didn’t treat birds.  

My daughter was holding the bird in a box. While I was driving, my husband and I were going back and forth on phone calls between emergency vet clinics, and exotic bird specialist.  We were sent on a wild goose chase into another county to once again find ourselves at a closed clinic.  

It was raining, foggy, freezing, and frustrating.  I asked my daughter to check on the little life, to have her open the box just enough for him to accidentally escape.  Spencer was in flight all over our vehicle while I was driving!  Because he was familiar with my voice, he flew right into my hair and perched.  I was going nearly 60 mph dodging raindrops, hung over drivers, and dirt roads with this finch flying in my face like a hummingbird back and forth,  I wasn't sure if he was out for vengeance and going to peck me to death, or trying to get my attention to turn around and go back home.  It was the first time in a while I was scared of something smaller then my thumb!  

"I'm sorry, Alright?"

Eventually, he landed behind the steering column in the dashboard!  

There was nowhere to immediately pull over.  I had to drive nearly ten more miles of winding wet roads before coming to a stop.  The heater had been on high, windows closed, and there was no chance of opening a door for fear the finch would fly away.  

After being pulled over for nearly thirty minutes, the vehicle became like a sauna!  It was hot!  We couldn't open a window, and my precious finch was playing peek-a-boo in the dash.  His face would surface just long enough for us to see him as he darted in and out of the opening, but not long enough to grab him. 

"Catch me, if you can"

We didn't want to injure him any further, so we had to treat the situation gingerly.  I thought we may never get him out.  I started to lose hope in the situation, I had to open the door regardless of the risk.  My daughter and I had to change seats from front to back, I was not cut out to climb over seats in cramped situations. 

I had to make room for my daughter to use her lengthy arms and hands and get this now stubborn bird back in the box.  

"Doctors, I don't like no stinking doctors...
I'm not going anywhere!"

I stood outside in the freezing rain deciding on whether or not to call for back up.  

Uh...Houston we have a problem,
we have a finch MIA.

But who?  I thought, “I have to have a bird to present for help and as of now, it’s playing Houdini”.   I knew we couldn't continue driving with this fowl in flight.  I could see the headlines now, "Family tragically killed by finch in face".

It was too cold to continue standing outside.  I quickly jumped back into the vehicle, and started whistling a tune to my tiny tweeter.   My daughter states, “Mom, now is not the time to be whistling a tune” I explained I was trying to entice him out, and it worked! 

Being wooed out, Spence finally flew back into his familiar nest…. on my head! I nabbed him back in the box.  We all sighed, "Thank you God".  It was such relief.  I didn't want to believe we drove all that way trying to save him, to have him fly off and die somewhere eventually.  We were never able to find someone who would look at the bird.  Feeling somewhat defeated, headed towards the house after stopping to pick up some triple antibiotic, gauze, and bandages.  I had to be its only doctor that day, and Hubby its surgeon.

I was determined to save this Papa bird.  He had been taking great care of his four new babies over the past three weeks with regular feedings, warming them in nest, and keeping a close watch.  He couldn't die.  I was more than determined to nurse this bird back to health one way or another.  

"Chicken soup anyone?"

When we arrived, we took him out of the box to examine the leg further.  The bleeding had stopped, but it looked bad.  There was still a piece of metal chain wrapped up in his leg, which gave the appearance his leg was split in two and mangled.  My husband and I just looked at each other and said, well let's get this thing off no matter what.  

We didn't know if it meant taking off the leg with it.  It was a difficult decision.  Spencer had not made a single peep the entire ride over the roads in search of a clinic, nor when we were holding him.  His breathing was sporadic, and I knew he must have been in horrific pain, because he usually was the loudest one twittering in the house each morning.  

When we arrived back home, nearly three hours later, we immediately took him into the infirmary, our bathroom.  When we sat the box down on the bathroom sink, he let out a peep, seconds later he peeped even louder, letting his babies, and his mate know he was there.  “I’m here guys, I’m back…hold on I’m coming” 

"It's just a little bruise...I'll be fine...just waiting for Nurse Graff and Dr. Kirby to finish practically ripping my limbs off.

They all started singing back to him.  I could only imagine the conversation between them all.  

The wife "What took you so long!
These kids are driving me NUTS!"

You could hear the babies, shouting for food, just as our children complain…always wanting more!  

"I'm starving and there's
nothing to eat in this house!"

You could hear the anxiety and relief between them.  The babies hadn't spent one second without their father since birth.  I turned Spencer over on his side trying to hold him steady while hubby began the procedure of cutting away the metal alongside his teenier then a tooth pick leg.  The tool he was using for this operation was a six inch Dike (diagonal plier wire cutter) on a leg that was barely an inch long, and merely a centimeter thick.  One wrong move and the whole leg would be sliced in half.  My hand was shaking as I held the poor thing still.  Hubby's hands were trembling as he neared the cutting area.  We knew the fate of our feather friend was in his hands for that moment.  When the cut took place, Spencer let out a shrill unlike I had ever heard.  I was afraid to look.  Yet, his leg was still intact.  

Inspecting closer, found that he wasn't able to move his leg.  I feared it broken, however, treated the area bleeding with the antibiotic cream and with a prayer began to place him in a small dark box with hay bedding to let him heal or pass, which ever came first.  But, Spencer began to sing again.  It was as if he was protesting being separated from his family.  

My husband said, "Put him back in the cage with his babies, and we'll see how he does".  As soon as we put him in, he immediately flew to the food bowl and started ingesting quickly, within minutes he was feeding the babies, all four of them.  I was astonished at the dedication of this bird.  How was this bird operating in such devotion after being injured as such?  You could see he was unable to stand on the injured leg, as he balanced on the other to eat.  It literally brought tears to my eyes as I watched how determined this bird was too live so that his children may live.  

Awestruck at the design of nature.  God had instilled in this little fowl a purpose in which it was to complete, regardless of its injuries, bloodshed, or inabilities to stand on both feet.  I stood in amazement and watched as he speedily fed the babies, and then hopped into the nest with them to continue to bring warmth, despite his pain.  "How God?  How is this possible?  I thought” The next morning I was hesitant to open the covering of the cage, for fear I would find our Spence past on, yet before I had the curtain raised, Spencer began his song.  He was singing to his babies in such a melodious tune, he bellowed out gladness and sang with fierce meaning, tweeting to his young, teaching them to thrive through injury, and continue to lead on.  

His songs became much stronger with each passing day.  His voice of determination resounded throughout our home.  This little bird with a big heart continues to sing as he now stands on both feet solid and strong.  

The lesson we learned that day was priceless. 

One, don't panic!  It isn't always as bad as it appears.  Two, don't give up on what seems hopeless.  Three, never ask your teen to check on a bird in a box while driving, unless you’re into fashionable feathers.   

"Does this bird make my butt look big?"

Four, your purpose is greater than your pain...keep moving forward! 

This finch was no fool, he had the eye of an eagle!

"I'll be back".

God used that tiny finch to teach us tenacity.  He allowed for what seemed a tragic moment turn into an experience of sheer laughter as we drove with feathers flying from my hair.  

He caused a striving family to pull together for once on a mission to mend.  He put a song in our hearts, Spencer's version of "Auld Lang Syne", “Shaking off the former, and moving forward”, he didn’t have time to stay stuck in the pain, he had purpose and purpose had him! 

Spencer sang out loud, he sang out strong, and now we know its Spencer’s song.

SING

La la la la la la la la la la

Sing, sing a song

Sing out loud

Sing out strong

Sing of good things not bad

Sing of happy not sad.

Psalm 59:16

But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

Brenda A. Graff

FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE

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Dishing Out Delays?

Here we are and New Year’s on our doorstep.  Already?  Where did the year go?  Often just days prior to welcoming in this holiday, people tend to reflect on their past year.  People usually use this time to reset their internal clocks and, wipe

the slate clean, making resolutions for change.  

As I got older, I quit making so many resolutions.  I used to write out a personal chart with goals to reach in the coming year.  I’d hang it where I would come across it several times a day.  It stayed as a constant reminder.  By the end of that year approximately 80% of what I had promised myself to do, I did.  

Somehow, I had lost sight of this great tool of encouragement and quit using it.  I became complacent about change.  Often the biggest obstacle in accomplishing goals is procrastination.  Change isn't easy.  Growth is painful.  I remember when my children were growing up complaining about certain joint pain.  Often, I would respond with, “Oh, those are just growing pains”.  And sure enough, as they matured, the pain ceased.   

Sometimes we have to go through growth spurts that hurt.

Being a mom of six, I can relate this to the birthing process.  I will never forget my first pregnancy, there were nine months of morning sickness that lasted morning, noon, and night.  Why on earth would they call it morning sickness?  

"Ugh, don't say it, don't say it, I'm warning you...
don't mention .....blahhhhhh"

Nine months of weight gain and sobbing in front of a mirror as my body morphed into unrecognizable proportions.  

Nine long months of feeling misunderstood by Hubby with the hormonal changes.

There were six months of feet swelling, and backaches. And during the last trimester had four months of insomnia tossing and turning to get comfortable.   Then the day of delivery arrives.  I spent eighteen hours in excruciating labor, exhausted, and vowing to NEVER EVER DO THIS AGAIN!  

GET IT OUT...NOW!

Yet, when that precious miracle of life made entry into this world, it was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.  

At that very moment, I truly forgot the pain.  It was suddenly worth every nauseating, ankle swelling moment.  The nine months of grueling changes within my body and war scars left were worth every sting.  Worth it so much, I did it five more times!

It takes risk to be willing to change.  It takes patience in the waiting as your life morphs into something greater.  Sometimes it takes tears shed, loneliness, unpopularity, scoffers, and failure as you focus on God's plan and direction.  There will be sleepless nights, and tiresome days.  

Some weeks you may feel the thrill of approaching the top of a mountain, and then other times painfully sliding down the bumpy foothill.  But keep climbing back up that mountain one step at a time.  If you focus on how far you have to go, it will never happen.  You will become discouraged and quit. 

This is in any situation.  Whether your trying to lose weight, finish writing a novel, looking for a better job, raising a tough teen, finish college, becoming a better father, mother or starting a business .  Whatever it may be, don't set the scale so high, that when you don't see immediate results you give up.  

Success is never achieved without failure.  How do you know if you can achieve anything if you never try and try again? 

By not trying we cause our own delays, using excuses as to why we are not where we want to be.  No one has that hold on us. Except, the Almighty God himself.  It isn't because we can't, it is because we won't!

Here are just a few examples of the ones who took risk, and never gave up on their resolutions.  

 

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas."  In 1921, Walt formed his first animation company in Kansas City, where he made a deal with a distribution company in New York, in which he would ship them his cartoons and get paid six months down the road. He was forced to dissolve his company and at one point could not pay his rent and reportedly survived by eating dog food.  When Walt first tried to get MGM studios to distribute Mickey Mouse in 1927, he was told that the idea would never work because a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women.

Fred Astaire was told he "can't act." In his first screen test, the testing director of MGM noted that Astaire, "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Astaire later insisted that the report had actually read: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances." David O. Selznick, who signed Astaire to RKO and commissioned the test, stated in a memo, "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin-line that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test."  Astaire, who went on to become an Oscar-nominated actor, singer and dancer, reportedly kept the negative note in his Beverly Hills home to remind him of where he came from.

Sidney Poitier was told to become a dishwasher.  After his first audition, Poitier, who grew up poor in the Bahamas, was told by the casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?"  Poitier went on to win an Oscar for "Lilies of the Field" in 1964 and 1967's super successful "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

Steven Spielberg got rejected from film school ... three times.

The Beatles were dropped by their record label.  Decca Recording studios, who had recorded 15 songs with the group, said "we don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. They have no future in show business."

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.  Michael Jordan went home and cried in the privacy of his bedroom.  But Jordan didn't let this early-in-life setback stop him from playing the game and the basketball superstar has stated, "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Steve Jobs was removed from the company he started.  He was a college dropout, a fired tech executive and an unsuccessful businessman.  At 30-years-old he was left devastated after being unceremoniously removed from the company he founded.  In a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, Jobs explained, "I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."  After his return to Apple, Jobs created several iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad, which have changed the face of consumer technology forever. And Jobs became one of the richest men in the world.

Elvis Presley got fired after his first performance.  In 1954, Elvis was still a no-name performer, and Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after just one performance telling him, "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck

Albert Einstein: Most of us take Einstein's name as synonymous with genius, but he didn't always show such promise. Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. It might have taken him a bit longer, but most people would agree that he caught on pretty well in the end, winning the Nobel Prize and changing the face of modern physics.

Isaac Newton: Newton was undoubtedly a genius when it came to math, but he had some failings early on. He never did particularly well in school and when put in charge of running the family farm, he failed miserably, so poorly in fact that an uncle took charge and sent him off to Cambridge where he finally blossomed into the scholar we know today.

Orville and Wilbur Wright: These brothers’ battled depression and family illness before starting the bicycle shop that would lead them to experimenting with flight. After numerous attempts at creating flying machines, several years of hard work, and tons of failed prototypes, the brothers finally created a plane that could get airborne and stay there.

Abraham Lincoln: While today he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders of our nation, Lincoln's life wasn't so easy. In his youth he went to war a captain and returned a private (if you're not familiar with military ranks, just know that private is as low as it goes.)

Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, and this was to a friend for a very small amount of money. While Van Gogh was never a success during his life, he plugged on with painting, sometimes starving to complete his over 800 known works. Today, they bring in hundreds of millions.

Emily Dickinson who was a recluse and poet a commonly read and loved writer. Yet in her lifetime she was all but ignored, having fewer than a dozen poems published out of her almost 1,800 completed works.

Theodor Seuss Giesel -nearly every child has read The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham, yet 27 different publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Charles Schultz -Schultz's Peanuts comic strip has had enduring fame, yet this cartoonist had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Even after high school, Schultz didn't have it easy, applying and being rejected for a position working with Walt Disney.

All of these individuals had one thing in common. THEY NEVER GAVE UP!  They didn’t procrastinate their way through.  They stayed focused despite the nay-sayers, rejection, and incredible odds against them.  Delay nor excuses was ever an option.

I don’t want to be a procrastinator this year.  After reading the meaning of the word “procrastinate”, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

pro•cras•ti•nate - to be slow or late about doing something that should be done: to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.

And there it is!  “Because you do not want to do it”!  I had to really chew on that for a moment, and think… “Am I procrastinating in certain areas of my life simply because I do not want to do it?”  “Am I really one of the lazy?” 

Proverbs 26:13-15

The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! A lion is in the open square!" As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again.

Did you notice that –“He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again” Too lazy?  

What is God asking you to do this year?  Are you hungry enough to feed yourself the knowledge it will take to complete the task HE has set before you?  Or will you starve yourself of the blessings, joy, and peace that only HE can bring to the table. This being done through HIS word, prayer, and worship?

People often fall flat choosing to never get back up due to the 'this is as good as it gets' mentality.  It’s too much work, pain, or effort.  Who wants to hurt?  Who wants to fail?  But who wants to spend a lifetime of regret because they delayed their decision to purposely work towards destiny?  Not only are you robbing yourself, but the others around you who can be blessed by you and your actions.

Move ahead in faith, and prayer.  Asking God to guide your steps throughout each day of this next year.  I challenge you to face the faith factor one step at a time.

"Faith is taking the first step… even when you don't see the whole staircase"  -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I declare this to be a year of decision, and destiny.  A year of change, and pursuing the things of God with a vengeance.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  - Philippians 3:14

PLAYING FOR CHANGE SONG! CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Brenda A. Graff
Founder
FOOD FOR SOUL MAGAZINE

WWW.FOODFORSOULMAGAZINE.COM

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/02/16/50-famously-successful-people-who-failed-at-first/http://www.businessinsider.com/15-people-who-failed-before-becoming-famous-2012-10?op=1#ixzz3NOXFmyjE