A Lil Birdie Told Me 🐦 Short Stories

---

Like the great Rob Base said, "It takes two to make a thing go right." That is the perfect song for this edition of A Little Birdie Told Me. Lately I have been watching a robin's nest in my backyard and live streaming it. I've been sharing little stories and what not while observing them, and what I am seeing is nature's absolute perfect blueprint.

Mama bird and daddy bird are not competing. They are coordinating. Mama is sitting on the eggs keeping the nest warm and nurtured while daddy goes out to secure the worms and protects the perimeter by keeping a watchful eye out. They play their positions and nobody is getting overwhelmed doing the lion's share of the work because they work together.

Now as humans, we are a whole lot more complicated. We do not always get that perfect blueprint handed to us. Lord knows I didn't. Having my first child at age 16 and sitting here now at 52, I can look back and realize I was operating on a whole fairytale vision of what love and relationships were supposed to be. I never had the real-time example of a marriage just sitting in front of me to say, this is what it takes.

So what did I do? Like so many young girls I gave up my womb to... fill in the blank: a cutie, a popular guy, somebody with potential or somebody who just showed me a little attention. We were out here having fun not planning a thing and then boom. "Oh, I really didn't mean for that to happen." Well, it happened. And here we are.

When things begin to go left it is so easy to point the finger. "He should have done this. He was supposed to do that." But for me, by the second, third and even fourth time I had to look in the mirror and own my culpability. We both played a part and made choices that were just not well thought out. Pointing fingers doesn't fix a single thing especially when there is a child looking up at you. I had to get real and ask myself how we even got here in the first place.

Now I am watching the next generation navigate a similar situation with my precious grandson. My son is a phenomenal father and a natural nurturer. This young man has a four year college degree, he is a teacher at heart and his humanity is absolutely beautiful and genuine. But life hit our family with a storm that most cannot even imagine—and I am so sorry if you have had to.

Just a few months after he crossed that stage and graduated college his sister, my beautiful daughter Randie Ann, was murdered. That tragedy rocked us to our absolute core! That trauma was incredibly heavy and it still is.

As we navigate through this there are no excuses. This is also not a blame game. There is no one who is all right and no one who is all wrong. My grandson's mother is a young woman who truly has it going on. She is established, she has a beautiful home, she has a thriving career and she provides a stable life for all her children. She had her foundation rock solid long before she even met my son.

The truth is my son was still in the process of stabilizing when they got together (and by stabilization I mean the basic needs of housing, transportation and a career). Now that they are no longer living together that definitely adds more hurdles to becoming stabilized, but he's a track star! We are officially in a season of shit or get off the pot (as my Momma would say)... I know how challenging finding work is, and trying to do it without transportation is even more challenging!

We cannot change how the nest was built or the storms that hit it. But we will absolutely work together to ensure my grandson is surrounded by safe/healthy adults. No one is going to love him better than his mother and his father, and we are going to step up to help mediate and facilitate. I mos def understand the challenges of bringing two families together in agreement for the sake of the children. I also understand that there is always room for improvement (and that includes myself).

Just like the song says, it takes two to make a thing go right. And our families are going to work together to make it go right! 

You hear that? The lil birdies are telling us: teamwork makes the dreamwork! We are now and forever will be #TeamTamir 

#FeelDealHeal #RandiesLight #ThePlaylist50andFab #Empowerment #Mindset #Growth #HealingOutLoud #SharingIsCaring #Leadership #Teamwork #ALilBirdieToldMe0420 #YOUCAN #SYNERGY #BETTERTOGETHER #TEAMWORKMAKESTHEDREAMWORK #BeLikeDavey #ForSuchATimeAsThis #ProfessionalDevelopment #WinningWithWEN #CommunicationIsKey #AuthenticConnection #CommunityImpact #TeamTamir