I woke up this morning and shuffled my way to my favorite chair with a little more vigor than usual. I received this extra burst of energy because the calendar says that its finally Spring. Time for yellow buttercup flowers to pop up from the previously frozen ground and everything that seemed dead suddenly comes back to life.

I sat and enjoyed the sun on my face that was coming through the window while I remembered that even though the calendar says that its Spring, I knew there was more to the story.

I remembered that as a child I would regularly overhear conversations between my Father and his friends while they were trading pocket knives back and forth about how we always have cold spells that the old-timers refer to as Blackberry, Dogwood, and Redbud winter before warm weather cements its hold upon us.

As I sat looking out my window, I began to watch a bird who was working harder than a one-legged man in a dance contest to build his nest high in the trees. The problem was that the little bird was taking the sticks to build his own nest from a squirrel nest that the Squirrel was still using it and wasn’t a bit happy about it.

I had a front row seat to the brawl of the century. Pay-per-view had nothing over this show. The Bird would continue to take pieces of sticks and the Squirrel would run him out every time. I began to think about how many times in our lives we may get aggravated at someone for some act they did when all they really wanted to do is build their own nest.

I began to remember a story that my Mother had told me about a chicken that she had as a child. The Chicken would roam around in the field all day getting its fill of insects to eat. It seems that the Chicken had attracted several chiggers that had rooted their way under its feathers and was making the Chickens life hard. It began to lose feathers and the skin was turning red from all the scratching. Anyone that has ever spent any time walking in tall grass is all too familiar with the little chiggers that attach to your skin and root their way under which causes great discomfort.

My Grandmother took charge and said she knew an old home remedy that bacon grease would help soothe skin issues so they brought the Chicken inside the house and proceeded to rub the bacon grease all over the Chickens body and now all they had to do was wait for the skin to heal.

Happy with being able to help, they returned the Chicken outside and as my Grandmother opened the door and tossed the Chicken out, the family’s big hound dog saw what he must have thought was the worlds biggest piece of bacon and he happily swallowed the entire Chicken whole right out of the air without even chewing. The family just stood there trying to figure out what in the world just happened.

The moral of the story is that even though we sometimes try to help by doing what we think is the best, many times everyone is better off if we let the problems take care of themselves. Everyone needs help every now and then. If you ever see that I need help, please skip the bacon grease. My dog already looks at me weird and I don’t want to take any chances.