Drab Hens

I've just started a reading schedule with my Ambleside Online Year 0 group that hopes to read through the major sections of Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study. We've started on the section about birds. I was really struck when I read about how the female bird is deliberately drab so as not to attract the attention of predators. It has often grated on an old feminist nerve of mine when the kids have noticed in the zoo that the male birds are so much more beautiful than the female birds (especially the peacocks), but now I understand the reason why God designed it that way. I see a parallel in my own life too. As a stay-at-home mum I sometimes feel like the drab partner, whilst my husband continues in an exciting job that I also used to do once. But now I'm encouraged to remember how important it is to be drab sometimes (lol!). Also, the idea that the chicks are also drab like the mother before they reach maturity just reminds me of the great privilege I have to be the biggest influence in my children's life right now, and what a responsibility it is to know that they're imitating me whilst they follow me around!