NO LOOKING BACK

This duck was either playing with me or was teaching me a lesson. By the time I made it over to the lake with my camera, the ducks were too far away to capture. I was sad. As I was walking away from the lake, I saw this beauty swim near me. I ran over to capture her; she turned around. We did this dance of her swimming near me, me walking closer, her swimming away, me turning around, and her swimming away again for a good 10 minutes. I was really sad.

At one point during the interaction between the duck and I, I laughed at how she kept coming back, and how I kept believing I could get a picture of her. I snapped what pictures I could and threw in the white towel. As I walked away from the lake for the final time, I thought to myself “wow, that duck really played me”. I hadn’t done anything to the ducks that day, so I convinced myself she wasn’t trying to play me, instead she was teaching me a lesson.

The duck was showing me how it felt to expect one outcome but receive another. The duck was reminding me of all the times I’ve made a promise to myself and didn’t follow through. The duck was reminding me of all the times I said I was or wasn’t gonna do something anymore, but then did the opposite, and didn’t like the consequences that followed. The duck was reminding me of all the times I’ve said I was moving forward on the path of life, but kept turning around to entertain frivolous things.

Wow. I was expecting to get a picture of the duck, but I wasn’t in the right area or position to be able to capture her correctly. I thought I was prepared to capture the shot, but I wasn’t. The duck knew I wasn’t prepared. The duck knew I wouldn’t have snapped a fire shot of where she was in the lake by standing where I was in the yard, so she kept getting my hopes up for nothing. Mean.

Still, it’s another lesson learned while being mindful in nature. I’m glad I sat down to process my feelings after this duck situation. I’m still working on keeping the promises I make to myself. I’m still working on being prepared so I won’t miss my opportunity at capturing greatness. And I’m still sad about not getting a shot of this duck from the front that day. But, when I FINALLY captured a picture of this beautiful duck who gave me such a hard time, I was reminded to just keep moving forward in life.

Life Lesson:

· You have to move forward in life, no matter what. Just keep going forward. Ignore the noise behind you, keep moving steadily towards your goal.

How I Apply it to My Life:

· I try to keep going, no matter what. No more backsies.

Song:

· Erykah Badu – Didn’t Cha Know

SLIDESHOW: Motivation.