AGAIN!!! DUCK!!!!

ONE MORE TIME, NOW--SMILE!

5 AM in Naples FL

Early Friday morning, in the dark, I sneaked out to check if there were any movements of concern in the duck nesting at our front door. Did I really hear a "peep"? YES! There were several peeps (not YOU "Peeps!) as the ducklings were hiding under Momma Muscovi.

I spoke gently to the 'family' and told them I'd be right back with camera in hand. They waited patiently. For I knew they would soon be gone. Several eggs did not hatch. I believe she chose poorly her incubation place, upon--and in--rocks (egg rocks--coincidence?).

So now they are gone, it is Friday night. And you know what? Neither Prayer-Girl nor I have even thought of using our front door throughout the day. Already a habit has been set! Probably never use it again? NOT!

Is it not interesting that we have avoided use of our front door for 30 days, because of the hatching process? And it's non-use has already become a habit?

Is it not coincidental that if I stop drinking for thirty days, one-day-at-a-time, I may well stay sober?

For years--only because it would mean a change in my thinking--have I fought against the use of phrases like "Do ninety meetings in ninety days", and "Bring the body, the mind will follow".

These sayings were not in common use when I got sober. I did not hear of "90 in 90" until I'd been sober ten years, and then thought it ridiculous. Working six nights (bartender) I would have had to turn away from AA if 90 in 90 were a rule in those days...no daytime meetings in Naples at that time, either.

Well, those recommendations now make a lot of sense to me. Imagine, it took God, speaking through a DUCK, to get it through this numbskull the benefits of HABIT. Habit-forming behavior! How important that is to many of us alcoholics, who did not receive a blinding-flash-of-light-spiritual-type-experience. We did not receive that instant release from our compulsion-obsession, and so we accepted it slowly over a period of days, sometimes months.

This duck sat on those eggs day-after-day-after-day, until it happened, the release of her babies from their confinement. So my alcoholic desire was released from me after days of sitting, not on eggs, but on my HANDS!

From this Momma Duck I learned the meaning and the reward of persistence. In thirty days I learned appropriate defenses (from taking a drink), daily practice of being satisfied, humility to do the job in front of me no matter what it is, and this duck also taught me again how to give love to someone outside of myself. Momma Duck denied herself many of her natural luxuries, just to do as God intended, sit on those eggs until their time had arrived.

She taught me that when I speak loudly, (she) the listener might become offended, defensive, frightened, or just "tuned out". She taught me that when I speak softly, gently, she listened, 'smiled' (well, you know!), was unruffled, and might even have heard what I was saying -grin! (Just like at AA meetings!)

I should be as true to my God as is Momma Duck, and I'd be a saint. She did more than her "job"...she took on the work of teaching a human how better to live. And I begin thinking now that all nature has lessons for me, if I but open my eyes, my ears, my mind, my heart.

And I'd better hurry, for time is gushing, rushing downstream to the dam below...see? Do you SEE? Already I forgot to observe nature, which is unhurried by time or seasonal passing. Nature is the teacher par excellence of patience, unhurried in it's march of praise to God, its Creator.

Peace, and Love, Peeps!
Steve

TRIVIA

Q. Didn't Roy Rogers once make a gay movie?

A. What's a gay movie? In 1952 he starred in a film called "The Gay Ranchero". But it had nothing to do with sexual preferences.