Living & Learning in the moment

I was just treated to one of life’s wonderful moments when a mother duck and her 5 ducklings swam by the boat quacking merrily and treated me to a display of love, life & learning.  Everything and everyone can be a teacher if you let them.

* In case you are wondering, yes, I can count!  This isn’t my photo nor the ducks in question.  I struggle a bit with finding the balance between fully living in the moment and being able to share these with others such as here on the blog.  Even the word “capture” seems at odds sometimes with the notion of living in the moment and getting the most out of each one.  So I often choose not to interrupt such moments by trying to capture them with my camera and this photo from Flickr will have to do.

All 5 ducklings pursued their curiosity and swam up to one of the tires around the mooring pole I'm on.  While the others were content to explore the tire by swimming around it, two were brave and strong enough to jump/climb up onto the tire and one of these jumped into the water inside. 

But now how to get out?  The inside of the tire was rimmed with a vertical band of steel and too high for him to climb up on. (I assume he was male as girls would have been smarter!)  For a moment I thought I may have to go rescue him  but taking my cue from his Mom who was watching patiently from a distance, left on his own he figured it out and after a few tries jumped/flapped/kicked his way back onto the top of the tire and then back into the outer water to join his Mom and siblings. 

I thought what a great microcosm and vignette of life I was just treated to!  All five were curious and checking everything out.  Two decided to jump up onto the tire to explore further and one heeded the call to learn more and check out that inner water space.  Curiosity can get you into interesting situations but seems to me that those who are confident enough to risk getting into these situations will also usually figure out how to get out of them.

May we all continue to passionately pursue our curiosity and treat learning as a way of being.

Comments

[David Kingsley]

We have some dense vegetation on one side of our house which is a seasonal bunny incubator. A few feet away is the window well in my office. Teeny bunnies would fall in with no chance of escape. Imagine a superball in a barrel with strong legs and a brain. Attempts to catch them only made them more frantic. Having been a designer all my life, I rigged a black cloth shopping bag to a stick and lowered it into the well, making sure to hold it open. With another stick I would gently prod the bunny. As planned, on every occasion they ran right into the dark "rabbit hole" and I hoisted them out to safety. Most often they were paralyzed with fear and I would get to observe them closely for a few moments before they regained their legs.

[marksdorcel]

While the others were material to discover the wheel by diving around it, two were courageous and powerful enough to jump/climb up onto the wheel and one of these hopped into the water within.