Looking into the Mind of a Duck

Becoming a child of nature

  We have a small pond on our property and during this last summer I noticed that there is a lone duck living there.  Every time I go by the pond I notice that she is still there swimming around and often times she would paddle over to where I am standing and look at me as if I were the answer to a problem she was having. 
 
  So the next time I passed by the pond I brought some bread along and threw it to her as she was swimming around in front of me.   She got very excited and would go after each piece of bread I threw and gobble each piece up until all the bread I brought was gone.  Then the next day I couldn't help thinking about her and felt compelled to go back with more bread.  So this has become a part of my day, only now she jumps up on the bank when she sees me and eats the bread right out of my hand. 
 
  I look forward to visiting my little duck friend as much as she enjoys seeing me.  But I sense that this contact is different from all the other contacts I have in my world.  For one thing, all my contacts involve images.  For example, I am in contact with people who project the image of a doctor or auto repairman or neighbor or even mother or friend.  Then there is the possessive aspect to my contacts, like my mother or my friends and my cow or my horse and of course your mother or your horse or your dog.  So I try to fit my duck friend into some possessive image but I can't really call her my duck just because she is swimming in my pond. 
 
  An animal belongs to the person who has raised it.  But nobody supplied the heat to hatch the egg she came from.  And nobody supplied the feed and shelter that kept her alive this long, so I came to the conclusion that this duck belonged to God. Then I thought of winter coming and wondered how she was going to survive the winter.  I know what it takes to bring an animal through the winter and it seemed to me that God was not taking very good care of His duck if He expected me to help Him keep it alive this winter. 
 
  But then I thought of my life and what was keeping me alive through the winter.  There was all the feed we made for the cows and a wonderful warm barn for them to take shelter in and the milk they would make and the money we would get for the milk.  We could go to Walmart and buy all the things we needed which were produced by the people in China and I thought of our soldiers fighting on the other side of the world when suddenly I looked a little deeper and saw that everything was there and alive because God was there keeping my world alive in exactly the same way He was keeping this duck alive.  And He loved the world of the duck as much as He loved me and my world.
 
  And the mantra reverberated through my mind,"BE STILL, AND KNOW, I AM GOD.'  I then left the world of images and possessions and entered the natural world of the duck in front of me and could feel Gods’ love giving us life.

Reviews

[Steve]

Sue,

Did you really write this? If you did (..and i'm pretty sure you did) this is very inspiring......i love the part about "things we needed which were produced by the people in China" this is kind of funny yet very true.....

And i love the part at the end where you talk about how your realized that God indeed has a plan for his 'child' the duck.

You are a very good writer........i hope you dont mind my asking for certain if you indeed wrote it because its VERY good.