At an 11th step meeting one spring evening, my Higher Power taught me a lesson in a way I wasn’t expecting. While we trying to meditate, the silence was broken by baby birds in a nest just outside one of the windows. Chirp! chirp! chirp! It never let up. Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Then, a few seconds of silence. Mama bird must be feeding her babies. Then back to the insistent chirp! chirp! chirp!

The lesson I learned from my Higher Power is that persistence is a powerful tool. Keep asking for what you want. Although, it’s important to know what it is what you want. Then, never give up! Keep asking, keep working, keep asking, chirp! chirp! chirp! Keep working towards a goal. Never give up. Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Work! Work Work! When I get frustrated or down, I need to remember what I learned from a little birdies outside a window, chirp! Chirp! CHIRP!

Later, thinking about the lesson I learned, I came across this famous quote by Calvin Coolidge.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.”

I wonder if he might have been inspired by a bird’s nest outside his window. I know I was.