Everyone asks me about my plans for having children. A nest of noisy miner birds has taught me how to respond | Joseph Earp

The life of the childless can be characterised as missing something in particular, missing the joys of protecting, protecting and caring for animals.

To a certain kind of person, forgoing biological children can be seen as a complicated spurning of life itself.

But not living in a world without children, or not having children, the beauty of our lives is that they are filled with unplanned opportunities to nourish and sustain.