Family

Family means many different things to many different people, but for me family is the village in which you live.  Your village is made up of the people from which you where born, the people you have chosen in your life, and the people which have drifted in from elsewhere.  Like all families we are not going to get along with all the people in our village and that is ok because it teaches us a great variety of social skills.  In our village we experience love, acceptance, and understanding while also learning how to cope with loss, betrayal, and abandonment.  Our village continually challenges us to redefine our place within our family as well as forcing us to adapt and explore our own personalities.

In your family you many not always get along with each member and there may be some that you actually despise.  I refuse to see this as a total negative in my life.  I have come to the understanding that all people are different and the only person that I need to please is myself.  Having people in my family for which I do not associate challenges me to not become like the people I don't like.  It has taken me many years to understand that by actively hating a person I am giving that person power over me and the best thing I can do is to be honestly in my heart indifferent to them.  Those people are not worth my energy.  And even though the relationship has been torn I have learned, I have grown, and hopefully I am a better person for the experience.

On the opposite end of our least favorite family members is our favorite.  Those people who are selflessly good to us and by their very actions encourage us to be good people.  These are the family members we cherish and often go out of our way for.  Cultivating and maintaining these relationships are so important to our own healthy psyche.  And by loving these people we can rise above our preconceived notions of self and become what we dream.

We tend to set the level of our self esteem by the relationships we have with members of our village.  We judge ourselves based on the opinion of others, sometimes good and sometimes bad.  Even though our village does help to define us and our place in this world I accept the challenge of setting the level of my self esteem myself.  By finding happiness within me I can walk though my village at peace with all of its members.  When I do not have to worry about pleasing anyone other than myself it makes saying no so much easier.

To paraphrase the Charge "if you cannot find what you are looking for within yourself you will never find it without".  This sums up beautifully the path to happiness I am on.  With this understanding I can look at my village, all of the people whom I love, hate, and am indifferent to, and accept them as I accept myself.  Life is a journey for which we set out our own trails.  We all choose the paths we walk, sometimes without understanding that there was a choice to be made.  But if we walk the path for ourselves rather than for others we will find peace, and by finding peace within ourselves we will have it to share with others.  This makes our whole village stronger.

Life is an adventure and we all have family we share the adventure with.  See your village and accept them but do not loose yourself in the drama.  Love those worthy of it and release those who are not so worthy.  Be yourself.

To my village: Love and Light and Blessed Be!

Nic, Nack, and Paddy

So we are on the second year of Mallard ducklings.  Last year we had a male and a female, Click and Clack.  This year we have three new quackers named Nic, Nack, and Paddy.  We got them as hatchlings on March 17th and kept them in the house on the living-room table in a small animal cage.  Duckling are very affectionate and love to snuggle with you and sit on your shoulder, in fact that is their preferred spot, so a towel then becomes necessary to keep your shoulder clean.

At about two weeks old the flock can start spending days outside, with supervision.  We have hawks, owls, racoons, foxes, and neighborhood dogs who would love to make an easy meal of the currently flightless birds.  So every morning we wake up and walk outside for our daily romp and then they get cooped up in their run while the weather is nice.  On not so nice days they spend a LOT of time in the tub, water entertainment and easy clean up!

At one month old most of their adult feathers have grown in.  They have graduated to adult duck food and weekly minnow hunting.  At first both sexes look female but very soon the males will start shedding their brown feathers and getting their beautiful green heads.  Right now they are still juveniles and very needy.  They are sleeping outside now but insist on companionship.  They often come to the back door peeping, demanding that someone come out to watch them eat!  Although they are pretty hand shy they are not afraid to come and sit on you if you are still.

Mallard ducks are a wonderful summer project for the whole family if you have the time and the space for them.  There is not a lot of expense involved in raising mallards.  I purchased my ducklings at a local farm and garden store for only $5 and 10lbs of feed only cost $6.  Inside I housed them in a small animal cage or kennel and outside they have a truck topper for a coop and a small kiddy pool to swim in.

The real commitment for these critters comes in the form of time.  It is the nature of fowl to imprint on a mother figure and when they imprint on you they will have a need for your presence.  Ducks follow you everywhere and will insist on you being there several times a day just to hang out.

Mallards, unlike flightless ducks, will eventually leave you to migrate south in the fall.  They will do this by instinct and need no prompting from you.  Often your ducks will come back for a visit in the years to come as they have a lasting connection with the place they were raised.  It is wonderful to be a part of this cycle of life, to love and raise these adorable and entertaining creatures and then to see them learn how to fly and eventually leave for bluer waters.

It is Morning

It is morning and I have awaken, the sounds of Spartan killing Elite permeates the air.  I have updated my blog and am making plans to write in it daily.  I do not know what it is I plan to write but I I know it will be randomly entertaining!

One thing I do plan, however, is to try and use this blog as a creative writing outlet.  I really really want to write something, like a book or what not, and every source I check out says the best way to become a writer is to actually write.  So here I am writing about anything, something, or nothing.  Enjoy!