Hi everyone! I've been battling back and forth with a slight case of insomnia for about a month now. Although I am exhausted by the end of the day, once I get into bed (next to my wonderful hubby - it's my favorite place to be) and settle in for the night, my brain decides it's been far too dormant for the day and makes up for lost time. At warp speed. Yeah, I know you've all been there.
One of the plethora of thoughts to cross my mind last night was a theme that was woven throughout my childhood - a mother duck and her ducklings. Weird, I know, but just bear with me for a minute ... My Dad always referred to my Mom as the 'mother duck' and my brothers and sister and I were her 'little ducklings'. When we were well behaved, we would be 'all in a row' and when one of us strayed, well, you get the picture. He would always give her cards, pictures, figurines depicting this theme. Quite sweet and endearing. This led me to remember a time not so long ago when Gracie - our youngest - and I were returning from the store and crossing our street were a mother duck and her fluffy little ducklings. Not too far prior to this, a different female momma set up her nest against the side of our home. Needless to say, she proved to be quite neglectful because she would lay an egg or two a day and then take off at night to do God knows what and leave the eggs unattended! I remember the entire family being horrified! We have many rogue animals here in Florida, not the least frightening of which is the wily 'o-possum', who loves to feast on freshly laid duck eggs. Those yet-to-be ducklings never stood a chance. Every one of them. Eaten. One or two a night - as if the o-possum knew it's meals were set for the week and planned his menu ...
Imagine how refreshing it was to see that even though the Heidi Fleiss of ducks chose our home to try to do as nature was calling her to, although she was well, quite unsuccessful; nature, instinct, life ultimately prevailed.
What's the purpose of the thought process? I asked my brain the very same question. ( ... at 2:25 am) I think the point of the meandering journey was that even though we are surrounded by so many influences that have the potential to veer us quite far off our destined course, the truth is, each of us has an instinct, a voice, a pull - conscience, will, God - that draws us nearer and closer to that right thing. Thankfully, as human beings, we have a far greater potential to realize when we are dangerously off the mark and even once we've gone quite awry, are basically still able to make it back. That awareness - that belief - gives me hope.
I do wonder if the duck who chose our home will ever have the ability of hatch little ducklings? Not this spring, anyway, but there's always hope for next year! In the meantime, even though these aren't part of my 'professional repertoire' - Gracie was the artist in this shoot - I thought I'd share the pictures of the little ducklings we saw that day - the ones that made it!
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| The Heidi Fleiss of the Muscovy Ducks |
Oh, and PS: any suggestions to scare away the wide-eyed nights would be much appreciated!
Thanks for dropping by. Please visit my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Organic-Soul-Photography/181995555150912 - I added some new pics! Here's to soul-searching!
Jackie
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