Come Sit With Me a While - The Lesson of the Ducks
Nature Girl
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: By The Lake
Posts: 60,328
Come Sit With Me a While - The Lesson of the Ducks
Each morning for the past few weeks, I have watched my mama mallard and her babies, as she parades them past my back deck. Each day my heart is tickled watching these little ducklings follow their mama and learn how to swim and eat and fend for themselves.
I read up on ducks, wondering what happens when they grow, and I learned that at about 10 weeks the ducks go on their own, first staying close to their mama and then eventually joining the other ducks and learning the lessons of the flock. Come autumn, they will know to fly south, as others in the flock do, and come spring they will return and have babies of their own.
Some will survive and some will go the way of nature, and we never know which will be the survivors.
I count the babies each time I see them....eight of them, all survivors so far. I think I may be more attached to these babies than the mama duck, because she knows the way of nature and she knows when the babies need to learn to leave the nest if they are to learn the lessons of duck life.
What a lesson this has taught me...or perhaps I should say lessons. They have taught me that it is right to let go, to let nature take its course. They have taught me that the babies cannot survive if they only stay under the watchful wing of mama. They taught me that there is a time for mama to protect and teach and a time for mama to let go. Mama cannot teach them the lessons of the flock, she cannot teach them how to grow and fly and have babies of their own. Only time and the natural unfolding of events can allow these ducks to learn the lessons they will need to survive life.
The mama in me is humbled to "see" what has sometimes been unclear to me. I am humbled to see that the greatness of nature and life is much bigger than any mama.
I am grateful today for my duck and her babies, grateful for the joy they bring me each morning and for the lessons they have provided simply by observation.
Please bring your coffee and sit with me a while, enjoying these ducklings and watching them grow. I hope it will bring a peace to your heart, just as it did for me.
I read up on ducks, wondering what happens when they grow, and I learned that at about 10 weeks the ducks go on their own, first staying close to their mama and then eventually joining the other ducks and learning the lessons of the flock. Come autumn, they will know to fly south, as others in the flock do, and come spring they will return and have babies of their own.
Some will survive and some will go the way of nature, and we never know which will be the survivors.
I count the babies each time I see them....eight of them, all survivors so far. I think I may be more attached to these babies than the mama duck, because she knows the way of nature and she knows when the babies need to learn to leave the nest if they are to learn the lessons of duck life.
What a lesson this has taught me...or perhaps I should say lessons. They have taught me that it is right to let go, to let nature take its course. They have taught me that the babies cannot survive if they only stay under the watchful wing of mama. They taught me that there is a time for mama to protect and teach and a time for mama to let go. Mama cannot teach them the lessons of the flock, she cannot teach them how to grow and fly and have babies of their own. Only time and the natural unfolding of events can allow these ducks to learn the lessons they will need to survive life.
The mama in me is humbled to "see" what has sometimes been unclear to me. I am humbled to see that the greatness of nature and life is much bigger than any mama.
I am grateful today for my duck and her babies, grateful for the joy they bring me each morning and for the lessons they have provided simply by observation.
Please bring your coffee and sit with me a while, enjoying these ducklings and watching them grow. I hope it will bring a peace to your heart, just as it did for me.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: USA
Posts: 328
Ann -
How beautiful - I hope you are a writer in your other life.
Will tuck this in my daily reader - to remind myself about letting go of other people in my life - to let them find their own path with their HP.
July 1 in the Alanon ODAT is one of my favorites - "we must each find our lonely way to our goals".
Love in recovery,
Jody Hepler
How beautiful - I hope you are a writer in your other life.
Will tuck this in my daily reader - to remind myself about letting go of other people in my life - to let them find their own path with their HP.
July 1 in the Alanon ODAT is one of my favorites - "we must each find our lonely way to our goals".
Love in recovery,
Jody Hepler
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