Monday thoughts <3

As I run into different friends and readers, I am asked how I am enjoying not teaching. 

I am enjoying it very much indeed.  

It is a great and tangible relief to not have our dining room table and one of the back bedrooms dedicated to piles of handouts, work to be graded, graded work to be kept, curriculum, snacks for the snack tray and more paperclips than I ever dreamed we would possess. 

There is the rest at night that isn’t overshadowed with how I can possibly make nouns and verbs and sentence structure stick in brains and matter to the teens and tweens that were under my care for those months. 

However, it is not like the found time has been applied rapidly to the neglected tasks of life and home. 

We went from school to our summer schedule with a frenzy of activities that have kept us on the road and away from home. 

So today is really the first Monday that feels “normal”. 

I took a bike ride to watch Russ play pickle ball, weeded two patches of our yard and have laundry humming. 

And I want to share a story God gave me on my ride back from the pickle ball courts. 

On my way there I stopped and snapped the photo above of this darling duck family. 

Less than a half hour later, as I was turning the corner and wondering if they would be there again I found a mom with three children and their bikes all crouched down on the path. I asked if she was okay and her face visibly communicated she was not. 

I circled back and the children parted to let me see the strangest thing. 

On one lane of the bike path, someone had laid down some plastic and many blades of grass. This was edged with large stones from the side of the creek. The 9 inch square pallet held a very premature duckling.

Still alive, but much too young to waddle around, it was resting and occasionally lifting its head or feebly flicking a wing. 

The mom was trying to make sense of it and the chlldren’s faces were deeply concerned as they looked to me. 

I told them I had ridden by less than a half hour before and this was not there. I told them I had seen the darling duck family and then I just told them this is hard. We puzzled out how someone thought to do this and what in the world was going to happen next.

We decided we needed to slide the infirmary away from the main bike path as a biker would not see it in time to avoid hitting it and probably wrecking. As I gently pulled the plastic, the whole thing moved nicely to the side and the little duckling wiggled again. 

The mom told her children the little guy didn’t look well and it was best for him to just pass. I said someone had probably tried to honor its life by preparing a comfortable place. We adults reassured the little ones that it was not suffering and that this is sad but part of life. 

They nodded their heads but our mutual helplessness was heavy.

I told them God cares very much for the little duckling and for them. The mom agreed. 

We parted ways. 

And I cried. 

Because life is hard. 

Sometimes what happens to ducks and people is just impossible to explain, grasp, understand and accept.

We want to shield our children from it, but thankfully there are those who bring honor and dignity to the hard places. 

Thankfully there are adults who speak comfort and life into children as they face the hard. 

I pray for those little ones who do not have this. I pray for the Holy Spirit to whisper comfort to them in ways they can understand. 

I am thankful for the kindness of God that we do not walk alone. 

Blessings friends <3