A Late Mother's Day Gift

A belated Happy Mother's Day to you! Yesterday was spent in the loving company of my family, who treated me like a queen. No time for blogging when there is all of that resting and eating to be done. I did snap the above photo of this statue, my Mother's Day muse, tucked in a sea of similar statues in my grandmother-in-law's mobile home park. I like her. She has Big B and little b sized children.

This morning little b and I experienced a true Mother's Day gift, one day late. We took a walk to our local park with our sweet friends (one amazing mother and one insanely cute little boy). I had just been observing that in the almost six years I had been taking my boys to this park, I had noticed a steady decline in spring ducklings. Just moments later, I heard my friend say, "babies!" and little b and I followed. Doesn't this mama look so proud? She was almost smiling at our praises.We sat and watched this mother and her five fuzzy babies for a good ten minutes. She had led them to the pond bank to show them to dig into the shallow water for food. I was surprised and grateful at how long she let us stay and how close she let us get. We watched her quack away ibis birds and turtles with fierce protection. She did give little b a warning quack after he threw a stick in the water, but I do declare it was a gentler quack, as if she knew he was just a duckling himself.
We will be visiting the pond much more frequently now. We will watch these five grow and learn from their proud and protective mama. We will learn to identify each of them and know who their father is. We will hope they stay strong in number and grow into fine young ducks this fall. As we finally watched the mama lead them away, soundlessly and powerfully, I was reminded that all mothers are united by the same feelings we saw her display: protection, pride, responsibility and love. Some of us may just quack a little louder than others.

Happy Mother's Day!