The Boys on the Beach

Last week the last ice of the season (I hope) disappeared from the pond. And this week the ducks returned to the pond in force.

A group of male mallards have been hanging out in and around the pond. We often call them

The Boys on the Beach

because they frequently hang out on the shore of the pond sunning and sleeping. Every year it seems that there is a gang of guys who hang out in and around the pond.

In the early mornings the gorgeous flotilla of glowing green-headed mallards smoothly sails to and fro around the pond. They make it look like they’re gliding effortlessly through the water. And even though I know that underneath the surface of the pond they’re paddling like crazy, still my mind only perceives how easily and gracefully they move and cannot imagine how much work it must as they glide so quickly around the pond.

I know some people who seem to glide effortlessly and gracefully through life like the ducks glide through the pond. Others of us splash,  struggle, and move far less gracefully through life. I take comfort from knowing that what appears on the surface does not show the true story of a moment or a life. One of my favorite quotes from Anne Lamott comes to mind—”Never compare your insides to someone else’s outsides.” If I’m lucky maybe once in a while I appear to glide through life like the ducks glide through the pond. And when I’m thrashing, splashing and making a ruckus, at least I know that I’m doing the best I can. Perhaps I’m even providing entertainment for innocent bystanders.

I am convinced that all of us do the best we can as we muddle through life, often learning lessons far later than we would have preferred. After years of second-guessing myself I now believe that everything in my life happened at just the right time and that everything that happened was a gift. Plain and simple. Life is a gift.

Back to the Boys in the Pond

The male mallards hang around together in their little flotilla until a lone female lands in the  pond. And then a huge ruckus ensues as all of the boys compete to see who will win the lovely female’s attention. Once her mate also lands in the pond, the excitement ends and the boys return to their patrols around the pond.

I thought that I had figured out the times when the boys patrolled the pond together. But as soon as I had a theory, they didn’t appear at the time that I expected them to and then when they did arrive they stayed much later than I expected them to. Each day is a lovely surprise. As I go about my daily life I take a look out the windows to the pond every now and then to see what’s happening. And I keep my Canon 100 – 400 mm lens on my camera with a 1.4 extender so that I can quickly pick it up and photograph the boys.

Wood ducks have also been paying visits too but they are far less predictable than the boys. I love these beautiful shy ducks.

As you can tell from my writing, though I don’t spend my days watching the pond, I do spend time every day watching the comings and goings at the pond.

Hidden Blessings

The opportunity to watch the pond through the seasons year in and year out is an unexpected blessing. It has filled my life with a kind of grace that I didn’t know I needed until I experienced it here. When we bought this house I fell in love with the trees in the backyard because of my deep love of trees. There was a lovely big basswood tree that shaded the house and a huge wise old willow tree down by the pond.

We lost part of the basswood in a storm and then had to have the rest of it removed. And the wise old willow fell trunk by trunk until it dumped it’s last trunk in the pond (which we then had to have removed by a crew with a huge crane). After the trees were gone the backyard felt empty and desolate without the trees that I had loved. Then I began noticing how well that I could watch the pond without the trees impeding my view. (You were right Mom when you said, “The view would be lovely if it weren’t for the trees.” And my sputtering that the trees were the view wasn’t fully true.)

Slowly I began to see the beauty of what is instead of mourning what was. Now I’ve become a pond watcher and I find the life in and around the pond completely captivating.

I am endlessly grateful for the beauty of nature and the opportunity to watch it unfold right outside my window.

“I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”
― Anne Lamott

May you walk in beauty.