Universal

That's what motherhood is. It's the one thing that binds us across cultures, races, even species. I was just watching out in the garden a mother magpie trying to feed her young. Great big lump of a thing he was but he still needed mum. She painstakingly lifted a piece of food and aimed it just right over his beak. I thought of myself trying to get that spoon into my own baby's mouth and laughed. The baby bird had a few goes and finally got hold of the food. Mum pecked at his beak trying to encourage him to lift his head and get the rest in. Frustratingly he tried but dropped the piece. Mum flies down, picks it up, and tries all over again (I'm thinking of those chunks of crust under the highchair). Another couple of goes as she patiently kept at it. Must. Feed. Child. *sigh* How I recognise this feeling! Then she gets a glimpse of me watching and it's PANIC. The child is shooshed off and sent back to the nest and she comes at me with wings flapping and beak snapping. You'll do anything for these little things. Anything.