Kozo at everyday gurus has issued June’s Monthly Peace Challenge, the topic of which is Peace at Home. This is my contribution. I hope you enjoy!
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I’m currently reading Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. How this book wound up in my life is its own story of synchronicity. After I was hired sight-unseen for a teaching gig I hadn’t been seeking, I discovered this book was on my predecessor’s syllabus. I mentioned this a few weeks ago to a friend who had popped in for lunch.
“I think I need to read this book.” I said.
“Oooh! Goosebumps.” she said, ” I have that book in my car right now. I knew it was meant for donation — I just didn’t know it was meant for you.”
She had planned to run a few errands following our lunch, which included dropping off a few items in donation. The book was in her donation pile.
Let me tell you, I am learning that now is very powerful indeed.
So this week I was reading a chapter about using and relinquishing negativity. Early on in the chapter Tolle discusses the problem of negativity,
Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche.
You might imagine my delighted surprise when I came to a passage about ducks. When I read what Tolle had to say on the topic I had to laugh. He starts with….
Even ducks have taught me important spiritual lessons. Just watching them is a meditation. How peacefully they float along, at ease with themselves, totally present in the Now, dignified and perfect as only a mindless creature can be.
–Eckhart Tolle
This man has obviously not met my ducks, I thought and closed the book.
You see, earlier this week we had a duck fight. One of the bad boys, Myrrh, started it. He grabbed ahold of poor Hiram’s neck with his bill, forcing Hiram to retailiate by grabbing Myrrh’s neck and the two side-stepped back and forth like they were slow dancing. It was really ridiculous. Myrrh then joined his juvenile deliquent brother, Frankincense, in bullying their sister Mistletoes.
Finally, after one Mistletoes rape too many, I tossed both Frank and Myrrh out of the pen and chased them to the pond. Aside from the departed baby Penguin, none of the ducks had ever been out of the pen in the great beyond. I told El-D I didn’t care what happened to the hooligans, which was almost true…
…until the next morning when I went outside to see if they looked ready to atone for their ruffian behavior and sexual shenanigans.
The boys were nowhere to be found. I called El-D to whine about it: I didn’t mean to sentence them to death! I just thought a little overnight banishment into the great beyond might do something to improve their disposition. El-D joined me in the search for the missing ducks. We found them…in the pen. In my indignation the previous day, I had absently left the door ajar and the little jerks had snuck back in. All ducks were present and they were laying around murmuring to each other about whatever ducks murmur about.
Ok, so I was happy to see them. Besides, their little adventure did seem to have a positive effect – they were definitely more subdued. There was no aggression, just companionable communication. I guess a day of swimming and doing duck things in the great beyond wore them out.
So….we decided to experiment. El-D wrangled the guys again, which was quite a show. Each one struggled to get away as El-D carried them out of the pen and up the hill. As soon as they caught another glimpse at the pond, they became still and quiet. When El-D released them, they went flapping to the water. At the end of the day, they were easy to herd back to the pen. The next day, when I opened the pen door the bad boys ambled out on their own…followed by Mistletoes.
When I next opened Tolle’s book, this is what I read:
Occasionally, however, two ducks will get into a fight — sometimes for no apparent reason, or because one duck has strayed into another’s private space. The fight usually lasts only for a few seconds, and then the ducks separate, swim off in opposite directions, and vigorously flap their wings a few times. They then continue to swim on peacefully as if the fight had never happened. When I observed that for the first time, I suddenly realized that by flapping their wings they were releasing surplus energy, thus preventing it from becoming trapped in their body and turning into negativity.
—Eckhart Tolle
What a lesson in forgiving and forgetting.
Today all seven are playing outside in the great beyond. At sunset I will go out there and they will make their way to the pen for their cracked corn dinner. They are as just fancy about this routine as you please and as well-behaved (at least for now) as the Peabody ducks. All they need is a little red carpet.
Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being. Let it teach you integrity – which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real. Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.
–Eckhart Tolle
20 comments
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June 8, 2013 at 2:13 am
petspeopleandlife
Great post lady. “Try not to turn living and dying into a problem.” Sayeth Mr Tole. Now that is a good one indeed. To me living has always been a problem but I hope and pray that when I die “I or it will not be a problem. Personally, to get a bit morbid here, I’m not having any kind of funeral or memorial. Creamtion and “it’s done.”
June 8, 2013 at 9:12 pm
Lunar Euphoria
I want to be cremated too. It seems so tidy and without excessive waste.
June 8, 2013 at 6:22 pm
Maddie Cochere
Wonderful post! I love the story of your ducks, but I’m definitely in tune with relinquishing negativity. i don’t always do it, but I try to live my live in a positive state of mind. Our son recently started watching videos and reading about quantum physics. It’s fun to hear him get excited over wanting to change his life just by not being to negative. “Your thoughts have a powerful influence; they affect what happens to you. To know this is to know something great.”
June 8, 2013 at 9:20 pm
Lunar Euphoria
I read a book awhile back, A Complaint-Free World, that gave me pause to consider how much complaining I actually did — usually about others. It’s a waste of mental energy, and I need all the mental energy I can get!
June 8, 2013 at 6:43 pm
Kathy
You are living in a world of synchronicity. The Universe and Eckhart Tolle and the ducks have joined together to show you the Power of Now in full operation. How I love Eckhart! Come to think of it, I watched Canadian Geese swim today and admired the way they move their necks back and forth as they propel. That’s my now. 🙂
June 8, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Lunar Euphoria
Sometimes I wonder if synchronicity might be a byproduct of surrender.
Sounds like an awesome now Kathy.
June 9, 2013 at 2:41 am
Kozo Hattori
This has to be the first post for peace that mixes ducks and Tolle. I love it. Animals can teach us so much about being in the moment and living in peace. I once heard a story about a pack of whales that were confronted by killer whales. The killer whales surrounded the whales and let all them escape except for an older whale who remained behind as a sacrifice. Amazing. Thank you for this entertaining and relevant post for peace. {{{hugs}}} Kozo
June 14, 2013 at 4:05 am
Lunar Euphoria
Though I do overdramatize the duck stories, the truth is those silly ducks are so fun.
Thanks for reading Kozo. Neat story about the whales.
June 9, 2013 at 4:09 am
jilrob
Very nice! We could learn much from watching ducks.
June 14, 2013 at 4:07 am
Lunar Euphoria
Thanks for reading!
I love watching them….everything but the deaths and rapes.
June 12, 2013 at 3:48 am
Dana
Love Eckhart Tolle. I always feel so connected and in tune when I read his books, and then somehow I end up wildly derailed in my own life, sometimes within *minutes* of glancing away from his pages. Still trying to figure out a way to have passages of his texts flash before my eyes like one of those stock market tickers. Until then, I enjoyed the duck connection and the reminder to stay in the Now. 🙂
June 14, 2013 at 4:10 am
Lunar Euphoria
This book was my first of his. Interesting ideas.
Maybe the answer to those text tickers is programmable Google glasses.
June 17, 2013 at 4:07 am
Dana
Come on, science! We’re waiting with bated breath for programmable Google glasses!
June 12, 2013 at 6:44 pm
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[…] https://mylittlespacebook.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/what-do-duck-fights-have-to-do-with-peace/ […]
June 14, 2013 at 4:10 am
Lunar Euphoria
Thank you for the shout out. 😀
June 23, 2013 at 3:02 pm
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[…] What do duck fights have to do with peace? […]
June 28, 2013 at 9:08 pm
Jas Baku
LoL! Ducks are brilliantly silly creatures, aren’t they 🙂
And Tolle’s books are just brilliant. I love his “The Power of Now”.
June 29, 2013 at 4:28 am
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