Nature's Rhythm: Chickens Teach Yet Another Lesson In Humility

As time passes and I observe my brood of chickens and roosters grow a few humility lessons peak out of the coop's window. Lately, my thoughts have centered on nature's order that, as arrogant, control-freak people we want to manipulate and control. Chickens lay eggs within a certain rhythm according to the breed, their temperament and light. The light issue is the one that has me cock-eyed the most.

I was not aware how sensitive these birds are to daylight. With the arrival of winter and shorter days our chickens tend to go to bed earlier than in the summer. The first time we neglected storing them in their house we found they had huddled on the closest white pine's branches already so sleepy that it was nearly impossible to shake them awake. By now we know to place the chickens in their side of the coop around three p.m. and the roosters will follow into their own side of the coop soon after.

Laying eggs can also be altered by the comings and goings of the day. I had always read that by the time people arrived at a chicken coop in the morning the chickens were already warming the eggs laid at daybreak. Our chickens are harassed in the morning by roosters that keep breaking into the chicken side of the coop. Their whole inner cycle has been disturbed and we get our eggs from them in the late afternoon when the roosters are plum tuckered out and the girls can rest easily on their fruits.

Witnessing a chicken laying an egg is not easily forgotten. Three chickens are the pets in the house and wonder about looking for a place to brood. Our Golden Polish Phyllis does not lay eggs every day, but when she does she makes a ruckus cackling in crescendo and hysterically running throughout the house. Once the egg comes out she walks away! She just drops and walks. Not the best mother in the brood, but she is quite huggable and loves computers since she sits on the chair's back rest while I work at the keyboard.

The advent of progress has changed the way people live. And lifestyles affect our bodies' cycles. Before harnessing electricity people's lifestyle forcibly allowed a rest time. Today we work in daylight and continue our work or entertainment deep into the night because we have electricity. Not so before artificial light ruled our nights. No television or computers, of course, but also no working, studying or gathering for long periods at night or the gas/oil lamps would spend the precious fuel. People were forced to sleep.

Instead of progress helping us better our lives we have become slaves to progress: slaves to a night life that requires socializing only from a distance and in spurts of time. Social networks could be a great means of communication, but instead of us managing it it rules our every spare second. Our bodies are pushed to the limit with gallons of coffee or energy bars to get us through that mid afternoon rot that could have been avoided with better sleep. Our minds also need rest and a time to settle things: face fears, make decisions, relax. These are attained by meditating and keeping in touch regularly with the One that built the machinery. Meditation is not our daily diet, running through day and night avoiding fears and insurmountable thoughts alone is.

And just like Phyllis the chicken who cannot sit still even to lay an egg we hurriedly race through the new and painful technology looking for an escape and never sit on it long enough to know what good purpose can come from it.