Ducklings

When my daughter was in kindergarten, she learned a song about five ducklings. Each day the ducks would go out and play and each day fewer would return, until finally there were none. Then…

Sad Mommy Duck went out one day

Over the fields and far away.

Sad Mommy Duck called

“Quack, quack, quack.”

Five little ducks came running back!

The song hit me square in the heart and brought tears to my eyes. I had no idea at the time I’d have a hand in making it come true.

Yesterday was a Baha’i Holy Day, so my daughter (now 10) had the day off of school. We went into town to meet some friends for lunch. As we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, a mother duck and her ducklings were crossing the driveway. They didn’t pay any attention to the car and, even though we beeped the horn a couple times, we had to creep into a parking space to avoid hitting them.

We were a little early, so we decided to take a walk before lunch. As we got out of the car, though, I kept watching the ducks. They were acting so strangely. The babies were scattered all over and the mother was just wandering around.

Then I heard it—another kind of chirp, frightened and distressed. We looked all around, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Then I saw the grate over the storm drain. Sure enough, trapped inside were two little ducklings, scrambling and jumping, trying to get out.

I tried to lift the grate, but it didn’t budge. I looked at the mother duck, quacking desperately for the babies she could hear but not see. There had to be a way to help. I tried the grate again and finally it moved. Between the two of us, we lifted up the grate and I knelt down and scooped out the babies. The mother immediately gathered her brood and headed off.

Later, when our friends came into the restaurant, they told us of the mother duck’s run-in with a crow. The crow kept trying to get her babies—swooping down when one would stray off. But the mother called her ducklings and kept them close. The crow landed right in front of her. She and her brood swerved around it. Eventually the crow gave up and flew off.

Two disasters averted within 15 minutes. What courage and dogged persistence to keep her babies safe!

During lunch I watched the mothers of toddlers, ever watchful, getting a bit to eat in the odd moment when the children were occupied. I listened to the mother of an emerging teenager and the struggle for independence. I looked at my own daughter and at all we’ve gone through together.

What an enormous effort goes into raising our youngsters—ducklings and humans alike. We pour our hearts into them and are, ourselves, transformed in the process. There is indeed nothing more precious, more fundamentally life-altering, than a child.

Bless them, every one.