Breathing Inside My Shell
So many tutorials from Mother Nature, so little time…
One of my lessons began with curiosity: how, I wondered, does an embryonic chick sealed in its protective shell get oxygen? Contained in the shell is everything the chick needs to follow the inevitability of its DNA, but it’s a go-nowhere without access to air.
Nature’s solution? The shell is porous. The chick’s miniscule developing blood vessels grow outward to press up to the shell’s inner surface. There, they are infused with oxygen that enters openings less than 1/1000 of an inch. This imbues the multiplying, differentiating cells’ biochemistry with the oxygen they need to convert stored energy into a living chick.
During its 21-day incubation, the chick develops lungs. Just before it hatches, it draws its first breath within the shell. An air pocket has formed, replacing lost moisture, and the chick breathes inside its shell even before it pecks the first small hole in the outer minerals that have shielded it all along.
An important caveat: don’t disturb an egg during the last three days before the chick hatches. It uses that time to move into position to break out into the world, and if it is not properly oriented, it will die.
I reflect upon the times in my life I retreated into a shell.
I instinctively needed to protect something vulnerable and tentative in myself, something bruised that would yet turn out to be essentially and importantly transformative. Perhaps from the outside I appeared to be functioning as usual, but I was aware I was sealed away. I didn’t have to tell those who know me best; they recognized the difference between emergency and emergence, trusting my incubation when I found myself in darkness. I now understand that while I was clad in protective armor, it was more permeable than I knew. It was porous enough to allow in the fresh air of love from all who care about me even when I was least aware of it. This infused my embryonic capillaries of longing, facilitating my conversion of stored soul-energy into new life. When the time came, I drew my first breath of realization while still encapsulated, breathing inside my shell. Then, timeless moments later, I was able to start pecking my way out.
I am grateful for sustaining air pockets of love from family and friends during such times. I especially acknowledge those who were wise enough not to disturb me as the hatching time came near. Thank you for containing any urge you may have had to volunteer premature advice, exhortation, and over-encouragement while I was getting oriented for emergence. Thank you for patiently waiting. Thank you for trusting that my hard-shelled period was a time to gain understanding or heal from a loss or whatever, and that as it came to its natural end, I would emerge a better person for it.
If you want to spend a few minutes of wonder over one of Nature’s miracles, watch the detailed, animated explanation of shells, oxygen, and first breath at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-M33PtwtM4.
Breathe into the hug, and feel it.
Thank you to Blue Barnhouse for permission to use the Holy Shit Chick image. I’m adding a plug for their creative un-massproduced letterpress greetings at https://bluebarnhouse.org/.
© 2020 by Karen Barrie
