Ugly Chicken

Ptari is looking a little ugly. 

I'm trying not to make her self-conscious, but she looks like a mangy chicken. A molting chicken is an ugly chicken who doesn't lay eggs. I'm happy she isn't dying, but she is U-G-L-Y.

I was talking to her today as I was cleaning out their nasty, stinking coop about how it didn't matter to me that she wasn't pretty or productive, I still loved her, it was just a little harder.

It wasn't that I loved her any less. I don't believe in loving more versus less, falling in or out of love. 

Love is. 

Love is steadfast faithfulness. There's no more or less, but there are definitely times it's easier and harder.



I feel a little shallow saying it's harder for me to love when my beloved isn't pretty or productive. I wish it was just about chickens, but my guess is it's true in all my relationships. 

It's harder for me to love something that's ugly and requires work without any return. 

There. I said it out loud. 

I think it's important to say that confession so we recognize love takes practice; it doesn't come naturally. Our instinct is to cherish the butterfly and stomp the spider, but how do we become people who love and cherish the beautiful and hideous? How do we love when it is hard and when it is easy?

And to know when it is time to end a relationship. There are times that the ugliness of life can so corrupt a relationship that it's destructive to remain and the least broken, most loving thing to do is sell the chicken to the butcher. 

I'm just joking. Mostly. I'm a sick and twisted person. I still love her lots so don't fret. I'm actually working on her Halloween costume. I think she'll love it.