Once a Mother Always a Mother

Recently this mama duck and her ten ducklings were spotted wandering alongside a fence that along with a thirty foot drop separated her and her babies from water. She seemed calm and cool camouflaging her ducklings in the tall grass as they obediently followed her as she paced along a 50-foot section (a total and complete non-confident guess on my part; it very well could easily have been 20 or 100 feet) of the fence. As my family watched her I yearned to escort her along the fence, down a busy road, across train tracks and to the water. A distance of a mile. This I know to be a truly accurate distance because I have measured it on my bike before running it.

One mother watching another in distress.

I became choked up and honestly had to fight back tears, because like her I know the feeling of trying to protect your children, not wanting them to see or sense the fear. Keeping a strong façade, all while perspiring and frantically panicking on the inside.

I’m happy to report that my daughter spotted her and I think eight of her ducklings in the creek today. I do not know how they made it safely, a mom has to do what a mom has to do.  They had not been seen since my emotional introduction to her. And no I do not know for sure that was the same family, but I have a strong feeling and for my emotional well-being I will believe it was them. I also let my daughter count the ducklings (all ten) and afterward she said, “Good, they all made it.”