on hen peckin’
Lately I’ve had chickens on the brain. 
Not long ago, I was feeling hen-pecked. Do you know the feeling? Like everything I said or did was being corrected, or controlled, or re-directed, or commented upon. It drove me nuts.
Until I realized it bugged me most because it was a reflection of my own behavior. Isn’t that often the case?
Yep, I’m really good at hen-peckin’. I peck, peck, peck at my kids, my husband, and everyone around me. I’m a control freak and perfectionist about some things, and I’m lazy about others. So I want everyone around me to respond to my wise counsel about my persnickity things, but lay off of my lazy things. I just want to relax sometimes, ya know?
So, after processing my annoyance, I offered thanks for the experience of being pecked-upon and made a vow to reduce peckin’ on my family. I even started a post about it. But I wasn’t making much progress.
Until I stumbled upon a lenten devotional about chickens, of all things. Sheesh! This verse describes gathering the people “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings“. With love, and kindness, and comfort.
It’s a different perspective for me. I can still be a chicken (oh. . . I could go on with this metaphor. . .), but in a good way. Now I can channel that peckin’ urge in a better direction.
Cluck, cluck!
What about you? Do you have any hen peckin’ tendencies?
photo credit: eyesore9 and wiccked
here a peck, there a peck, everywhere a peck peck. YES, I do it too. Mostly with just immediate family. Isn’t that always the case? So tolerant with people outside my immediate sphere, but oh so not so much at home. sigh…
I have a tendency to be a henpecker too, unfortunately. But improving all the time, gratefully.
My dad used to visit his grandpa out on their farm, and taught me a lot about what he observed about chickens there. The mother hen will allow the baby chicks some freedom, let them wander and explore a bit…but whenever there is a sign of danger…or even if the chicks stray a bit too far from her protective eye…cluck-cluck-cluck! She calls them back under her protective wing, and they come running –to where they are nurtured and safe. A nice metaphor for parenting.
We’ve used that scripture for a family devotional activity…playing at being chicks and hens, letting them run free a bit and then cluck-cluck-cluck! they all run back to mother hen. It was a lot of fun.
charrette’s last blog post..—And Don’t Tell Anyone You’re My Mother (she said sweetly)
Heather:
Yes, we take our close ones for granted, don’t we?
Charette:
I love the concept of letting them a bit of freedom, then calling them back into protection when necessary.
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