As the gentle hand reached down to catch me.

2008-08-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

The day I was born was a great day indeed. Summer morning was warm, and my momma told me it was a great day. Lilly, Baby girl and the others watched as all this happened. I was the first to be born and my brothers and sisters showed up one at a time.

Momma told us we had to be careful and stay at home while she went to get food, she was to be right back.

Lilly, curious as all get out, leaned over to look closer at our group and counted 5 of us. Not a big family but cute and healthy.

Momma showed back up and we snuggled up to her. The morning air still had a bit of a chill in it and everything was new and strange so some of our chill was fear.

Momma told us that we would be taken good care of and we not need to worry.

Next thing I see is a big giant come and reach down towards us. It was a gentle hand that reached and only caught me, my siblings all scurried with fear. Momma was really mad and attacked the giant, but that did not look like it would help. So I shivered and cried very loudly and momma told me to hang in there. She will come to rescue me! I ducked my head and then the hand opened up a bit and said, “Hi baby, how are you? You look scared. Let me see what I can do about that.”

I was confused. Here I thought the giant was going to eat me in one bite, but it gave my chin a soft stroke and I felt better. I stopped crying and momma stopped fussing.

The hand put me down on a soft bed and then turned and left. The next thing I hear are my brothers and sisters also crying and momma all upset again. I tried to call out and tell them it was all right and the giant had not hurt me and they would not get hurt, but no one listened. Fear is a great thing when there is a unknown.

The Giant came and brought all my brothers and sisters to where I was and then finally also brought momma to us.

A big red thing came in and a big container of what I know now is food and water. Momma strutted her stuff showing the giant she was not scared and to stay away. Each morning the giant came, put her hand in and gave us food and water. Also as she left the hand in there, I was curious and stuck my head out of bed and looked.

As the days turned to weeks, I became braver. The hand never hurt us and one day my curiosity became the better of me, and I ran over to the hand that came in and jumped on it. The hand froze and I heard the words again. “Hi little baby, how are you? You don’t look so scared anymore. I promise I won’t hurt you” The others were totally scared, cried and hid behind momma. The hand lifted very gently and it felt like I was flying. I left momma and my family and came really close to the giants head, so now I was scared again, and cried. I thought it was going to eat me! What a mistake. But as nothing happened, and it the same voice said, “I am sorry for scaring you, I just wanted to feel how soft you were” The Giant held me and talked to me for some time, and I fell asleep in its hands. I woke up and was hungry and I started to cry, I did not know what to do, but as soon as I started, the hand brought me back to momma and I was back with my family.

Time goes slow when you are little and I remember every day that the hand came, I started to play tag with it when it came in. The giant laughed so loud it scared me at first.

As I got older, momma did not fuss that much anymore when the giant came and took me away. I had fun, I got to play outside on the grass, chase little jumpers, and explore. The Giant became my best friend. My brothers and sisters never were interested and just did not know what they missed. I told them of all my adventures but they just cried with fear when they heard of them so I stopped telling them.

Life is a different journey for each one, but we make our own lives the reality we choose. Many let life create the journey and with fear or lack of willingness to try, it defeats us before we know it. STOP and see where you life has taken you? Are you open for a giant to take you in her hands and explore life? IF so, start today, it is never too late to start.

By Andrea McGilvray
The Chicken lady.