This morning I made sure the children were happily fed so I could skip our usual family breakfast in order to make my own meal to enjoy in silence and gratitude. After I cooked and plated my food (and snapped a few proud photos) I went outside to sit in solitude. To relish the first beautiful pullet egg from our third flock of hens.

In reflection I appreciate this egg more than any other a chicken has laid for our family, a lot of that indebtedness goes in the direction of my husband, and of course to mother earth. To me it symbolizes a trivial sense of perseverance and determination. Which has resulted in one more beginning, one that comes before a thousand more that will hopefully follow. We are forever beginning and ending. If at first you don't succeed try try again.

Our effort for a viable flock on less than an acre of fenced backyard space in the city has flopped a few times. With each prior brood we knew when it was time to quit. But I never want to be someone who gives up on something I truly want.

This year we've found our poultry groove and I look forward to many dozens of eggs. I anticipate the day that I can sell beautiful eggs with bright orange yolks to our friends and fellow Athenians. A meal with more vitamin A, D & E, fatty acids, and beta carotene than you can buy from a store, from chickens that have been given land to flap around on and good things to eat. Bugs, because chickens are not vegetarians like a carton might try to lead you to believe. No eggs from fowl that are tightly confined in cages on the back of the trucks headed up and down GA HWY 129. Those poor chickens have broken my heart over and over again during the last twelve years of travel to our mountains. I remember the first few times I saw the trucks, I knew then those chicks weren't for me.

Food of the breakfast like nature. Our life revolves around it. Silas has decided he wants a breakfast party for his birthday. He loves to greet people and say "WELCOME TO THE BREAKFAST PARTY!" Everyone loves breakfast, right? I am no exception.

I discovered the egg yesterday evening while putting my girls up for the night. I quickly decided this one would be mine. The next egg will go to David, when he can make the time to sit a minute before rushing to work. We've both put great effort into filling our acre with the little bit we have and carving out the time to do so. That is never easy, but we have twenty four hours and choose how to spend them. Today the children, who are usually put first, went to the back burner. This morning I sat alone and savored my perfect to me breakfast. I reflected on where we've come from as one each, and then into to a couple. All the great places we've been together, and now where we collectively head as five.

I must say an egg has never tasted so good. But when thinking those thoughts about growth and direction I must admit us adults feel at a current standstill due to the nature of David's business.

For me this egg shows that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, it takes a long time for what we perceive as great things to come. When those tangibles arrive they may suddenly feel like home, as if you were never without them. But we must remember what we were once without and wanted so deeply. Or we may find a dip in the gratitude I believe we all have to make effort to fully achieve. If we do not feel grateful for what we already have, what makes us think that more will be enough?

Let whatever you do today be enough. peace be with you - jmb