Guest Columnist: Carol Milder and husband Ken moved from Richmond, Texas, to their ranch in Buffalo, Texas, in 2008.  In 2024, Carol retired after a 49 year career in the real estate industry, as a Realtor and a residential real estate appraiser.  Her retirement plans include ranching, ministry, and writing.

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      Graduation and the Fledglings 

by Carol Milder​

     High school graduation announcements come in the mail this time of year, and I am reminded of that season of my life. The proms, the parties, the graduation ceremonies, and then the close of a chapter. The parenting chapter.    

     When our last child left home, my husband was kicking up his heels, like it was liberation day, I was sitting in the kid’s bedroom thinking the house had never been so quiet and so empty. Tenderly and sweetly, he reminded me that parents don’t have children to keep them, we raise them, love them, train them, prepare them for adulthood and then … release them. 

     I knew all that was true, but it felt like I had been suddenly “laid off” from a job I loved, a job I was good at, a job that filled my days with errands, a job that stimulated my mind at night, a job that had become my identity. My heart becomes tender this time of year for all the Momma’s that may be experiencing what I experienced.  

     God used a bird family to illustrate how a season in our life beautifully comes to fruition. He used a family of Blue Jays that live in a towering oak tree on our property. I was invited to witness a miracle. 

     On the day the baby birds took their first flight, the adult birds used their loud and unmelodious call to get my attention and the attention of their fledglings in the nest. I was being instructed to look up, the baby birds were being instructed to pay close attention to their parents. 

     The adults took off first, showing the babies the flight pattern. Then the parents loudly called the fledgling babies. This was the day, their first flight, an amazing miracle, it was a fly or die moment. Each baby flew from the top of that tall oak tree at the back of our house, to a pine tree at the front of our house. They each made it!! It was poetry in motion!  

     The young birds looked so serious and somewhat concerned. I was between the two trees, cheering them on. Then they flew back to their home tree. A few of the babies, obviously thrilled and excited that their wings were fully functional, flew to a different big tree, before heading home. These were the brave and independent siblings. The baby birds would never again be comfortable in the nest of their parents. The days in that nest would soon be over. 

     Cheers to each graduate as they discover the strength of their wings. It is thrilling to see young adults start their fledged to adulthood, fly high!!  Well done!! Hug the Momma and the Dad at the graduation party, and keep them in your prayers!! It can take time and tears to close one life chapter and fully embrace the next exciting chapter. 
     Give them a “well done” too! 

     Job 12:7-10 NIV, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.  Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”