tender moment

One day I was looking at a man with a disability.

In his hand he held a tiny wounded bird.

He had made his hand into a little nest,

neither so open that the bird would fall out,

nor so closed that it would be crushed.

The nest was a reassuring place in which the bird could grow

so as to fly one day to freedom.

A mother's arms are a nest for a child,

not to possess or imprison him,

but to give him security

so that one day he can fly away.

Tenderness is like this. .

- Jean Vanier