A Leopard Doesn't Change Its Spots

The ladies love him.

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So you guys...did I tell you we were getting chicks? As in baby chickens? That's right, peeps...we have baby chicks in the house. And I, apparently, have lots to learn.

Because you know all those things you've heard over a lifetime? Things like 'pecking order' or 'don't count your chickens until they hatch' or 'she rules the roost'? Well, turns out, they all stem from raising chickens. CHICKENS.

So one of the hardest things for me to take is the pecking. Sometimes, these little teeny chicks will just start pecking the crap out of each other. Then they'll stop. And they'll walk around a bit and eat and sleep and drink and then maybe they will get pecked a bit. And apparently, this is all quite normal (as my children and I stand there, mouths gaping, in horror) because the chickens are establishing their pecking order. 

It is, I've been told, what chickens do. It is what they do, who they are, and no amount of wishing or training or anything else can make them be anything but what they are...chickens. This is something that's in their nature.

Which got me thinking to the saying, "A Leopard Doesn't Change Its Spots". 

I know sometimes that saying is supposed to imply that a bad character trait in someone can't be eliminated. That you are who you are who you are.

And sometimes, that's actually a little depressing. Because hello?! Ever hear of self-improvement?

But as I watch these chickens go through their first week, and watch them test the boundaries of the world around them, I can't help but thinking that what you are...that thing you are or have or are compelled by...well, it's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Sure, there are downsides. What I am is chronically late and terribly messy. But I'm also a lot of other things, good things, and those are as much a part of me as anything else. 

Am I making sense? It's late and I feel like I'm not saying this like I want to say this. 

This is what I want to say. A leopard doesn't change its spots. A chicken is a chicken and will peck and do all kinds of chicken-ish things because that's who and what a chicken is. And we are, no matter who or what tries to conform us to a mold, each our own individual selves with an un-ending reserve of what makes us great.

A leopard doesn't change its spots. And in many ways...ways of resilience and passion and our innate individuality...no matter what we're coming up against...neither do we.

xo...Danielle

P.S. The first book in the great book giveaway has been shipped! The next giveaway is on June 21!