fulfillment

Story: How to Build a Nest – Or Not

/ Rev. Eric Anderson / Leave a comment

September 27, 2026

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Matthew 21:23-32

A lot of birds build nests of some kind. Some are very simple, just a scrape in the earth. Others don’t build a nest at all, including the oh-so-brave manu-o-ku, which simply lays an egg on a branch. Some build pretty complicated nests. The ‘amakihi makes a very complex nest, and only the expectant mother does the building. Among the ‘apapane, both mother and father work at it. Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

An ‘apapane couple was very excited because two of their children, both males, had found wives and decided it was time to hatch some eggs and fledge some chicks. These were their first, um, grandbirds, and that makes both people and ‘apapane very happy.

What they weren’t happy about was how the preparation was getting along.

Their first son flew over with his wife and they asked, “How’s the nest building going?” The younger couple looked around in embarrassment for a bit before they confessed that they hadn’t started. “How are you going to lay any eggs if you haven’t got a nest?” demanded the hopeful Tutu.

“Go build your nest,” said the grandfather (he hoped) to be, and to his surprise the younger couple said, “No.”

“What?”

“No. We’re going to rough it, like the koa’e kea. We’re going to keep it simple. Find a hollow in the rock. That will be enough.”

The parents were appalled as they flew off. A few moments later, the other son and his wife flew by.

“Please tell me you’re getting a nest ready,” said the grandmother-to-be.

“Oh, absolutely,” said her son, and his wife agreed. “It will be ready well before time.”

“What a relief,” said grandfather-to-be as they flew off. “At least we’ll have some grandchildren raised in a proper nest.”

Strange things happen among birds – and among people, too, but these are birds. That first couple, who were going to lay their eggs in a hollow in the rock, like a koa’e kea? They checked out those holes in the cliffs, and they looked uncomfortable and they felt uncomfortable. Shortly afterward, they were flying about the forest collecting mosses, twigs, and leaves. The nest took shape high in an ohi’a tree.

The other brother and his wife started work on a nest, but they got tired and bored. They barely poked at it. When they left it for a day or two, it began to come apart. No nest took shape. And they didn’t lay any eggs that year.

The ‘apapane grandparents were disappointed, but they were also thrilled. One son and daughter-in-law had said they wouldn’t prepare, but then they did, and raised three much-loved chicks to fledglings and adults. The other couple said they would get ready, but they didn’t, and it would be some time before they had their first nest, and eggs, and children.

“If you do the things to get ready,” said the grandmother to her grandchicks, “it comes out right.”

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Story

I write theses stories in full ahead of time, but I tell them from memory and improvisation on Sunday morning. The story as you read it does not precisely match the way I told it.

Photo of two ‘apapane by Eric Anderson.

Story: Fulfilling

/ Rev. Eric Anderson / 1 Comment

December 11, 2022

Luke 1:46b-55
Matthew 11:2-11

His feathers were fully grown and laid upon his wings and back in shades of greyish brown, with bright white and black on his chest and wings. His wings stretched nearly three feet across, elegantly shaped and tapering to each pointed wingtip. He was kind of awkward on the ground and it took some work to get airborne, but once he caught the air beneath his wings he could stay airborne for hours. He was an ‘ua’u, or Hawaiian petrel, and he would spend three quarters of the year over the sea.

He was, in short, all grown up.

That left him, I must say, just a little cross. Flying over the ocean at night, wings beating and eyes tracking the water below for the little glow of fish or squid near the surface, he wondered what more there was to things. It was all very well to be a strong flier and a good looking bird and an effective fisher – flying fish, beware! – but now that everything was done, what was there to do that was new?

One day he found himself flying nearly wingtip to wingtip with his grandmother. It was pure chance – ‘ua’u fly solo or in pairs during their nine or so months at sea – and the two fished in silence for a while. After catching a particularly tasty flying fish, however, the grandson turned to the grandmother and asked, “What do I do now that I’ve done everything?”

“What makes you think you’ve done everything?” said Tutu, rather surprised.

“Well, look at me,” he said, and turned a circle that showed off his feathers and flying skills. “I’m an expert at catching fish,” he said, “and I know all the calls and sounds of an ‘ua’u. What more is there?”

Tutu knew that there was something more, but the ‘ua’u don’t start having chicks until they’re some years older, so she didn’t mention that. She was puzzled, though, that her grandson thought he’d done everything there was for an ‘ua’u to do even before having a family.

“Look down,” she said. “What do you see there?”

He looked down and there was a ruffling beneath the sea surface. It was a school of squid – but strangely, he’d only seen such a thing once or twice and had never fished them.

“Follow me,” said Tutu, and she gave a strange twist of her wings and swooped down over the ocean surface. He had to follow more gently, because he’d never seen that flight move before. The two swept over the school of squid and in a moment they were both feeding.

“Was that different?” asked Tutu, and he had to admit it was. “And why didn’t you follow me down the way I flew?” she asked, and he had to tell her he’d never seen what she’d done before.

“I guess you haven’t done it all yet, have you?” asked Tutu.

“But once I’ve eaten everything in the ocean,” he said, “and learned everything there is to know about flying, what is there then?”

“It’s not likely that you’ll taste everything that swims,” she said, “and there is always something more to learn about flying – but even when you get close to that, there will be other ‘ua’u around who will want to learn what you know. Sharing those things makes them new again.”

“Your life is never fulfilled,” she told them. “It may seem much the same from day to day, but even then there are new things, new challenges, because tomorrow is not just like today. Each day you are fulfilling your life, and each tomorrow you are fulfilling it a little more.”

by Eric Anderson

Watch the Recorded Story

In the video, I’m telling the story from memory of this text. And making things up as I go along as well.

Photo of an ‘u’au in flight by ALAN SCHMIERER from southeast AZ, USA – HAWAIIAN PETREL (5-3-2018) kalahaku overlook, haleakala nat park, maui co, hawaii -01, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74776449.