The discouraged sounds of the birds drew me to the window, and I immediately saw what the trouble was. The two sparrows were perched on top of the frame of the open window and there was debris all along the window sill. The debris consisted of dried grass and leaves and little pieces of sticks, all representing work that had lasted many days. Up till then, the two birds had been building a home, inside a crevice on top of the widow. They would alternate turns to bring in the materials to build the nest. Each bird would fly in with a mouth full of raw materials and disappear inside the crevice. From the shrill twits, one could easily tell that it was an exciting exercise. After a few minutes of construction, the bird would fly off to find another lot of materials and its partner would replace it at the construction site.

When I saw the cluttered debris, I immediately guessed what had happened. The reason is because I had seen this happen several times before. Our Caretaker called Jack had destroyed the nest to discourage the birds from clogging the ventilation holes that lead into the house. Each time that Jack had destroyed the nest before, the birds had perched along the same window frame and consulted in the same discouraged sounds as they looked at their unsuccessful efforts to build a home and raise a family. In the shock of the moment, perhaps they asked each other, “What happened?” or “Where did we go wrong?” much in the same way that human beings do when things unexpectedly go wrong. And each time, they have decided to start all over again.

Like the sparrows, each one of us has been in a situation where they are faced with failure and wondered what to do next. “Should I quit or should I try again?” What makes it tricky is being in a situation where one does not understand why they didn’t succeed. When the birds ask themselves, “Where did we go wrong?”, it is because as far as they knew, they had followed the rules of successful home building to the book, so why didn’t they succeed? And not understanding that their choice of site had consequences beyond the bird kingdom – and hence Jack’s intervention – their only conclusion might be what any human being might easily conclude in their frustration, “I am not made for this” or “There must be something wrong with me.” And of course when anyone says that there must be something wrong with them, they will search for it until they find it.

The problem is the location of the nest, and not the sparrows themselves, just as it usually is our approach to problems that make us fail, and not us who are the problem. Should the sparrows wallow in self pity forever and give up building a home for the rest of their lives? Should the sparrows start blaming each other and fighting because their efforts were unsuccessful? Should they blame the lack of building locations in the neighborhood?

The sparrows are now gone, and I sincerely hope that they found another spot where they can comfortably build a nest. And to the rest of us, may we have success in our endeavors.