I Didn’t Expect to Fall in Love with a Chicken

Relatively Stable · Nov 5, 2026 · 18m · transcript

I Did Not Expect to Fall in Love with a Chicken

Stable Roots | Audio Edition

What do a dying chicken, a fountain pen, a small funeral, and an alarming amount of stationery have in common? Apparently, my nervous system.

This week in Stable Roots, I'm writing about the ways grief announces itself before we even know what we're grieving, the unexpected heartbreak of loving a tiny Silkie chicken, and the holiness of dawn when you've spent the night tending a sick animal.

There's also a nine-year-old with a better understanding of mortality than most adults, a dearly departed chicken whisperer…