We all experience moments burned so deeply into our memories that, even at the time, our souls whisper to our hearts and minds that from that moment forward our lives will be forever changed.

A first love, your wedding day, the births of your children, your greatest successes and most humbling failures, a painful illness, and the imminent death of someone you love.

Everyone who has had the responsibility and care of a parent understands the shifting roles that occur as one or both parents become physically or mentally impaired.

The emotional dynamics of becoming the nurturer, the counselor, the caregiver, and in some cases, the financial and legal adviser to a parent no longer able to care for themselves is a daunting task for both parent and child.

Many times, the geographic location where we were born and raised is over-powering in guiding our sense of what is acceptable behavior, what is considered taboo, and those really, unforgiveable actions that may cause you to be socially shunned.

Such is the life of that rapscallion retrovert who respects tradition but dares to invoke change. She dances along that fine line up to the very edge and when asked why, she dares to say, why not!

Many of the emotional and societal dynamics we encounter as humans are also experienced in coops and barnyards everywhere. Who would have thought humans shared so many of the same personalities as our favored bird, the chicken. That's right, chickens mirror many of the same dictates of human behaviors in more ways than you could guess.

Chickens have love and devotion to their families, are loyal and protective of their youths, have established hierarchies that maintain order and discipline within the flocks, and they mourn those who are lost.

You may be surprised to discover the similarities humans share with our feathered friends.