Yes, that is posted on a sign in a public park, only a few blocks from where I live. So why in the world would anyone want to harass a duck? I guess someone, somewhere at some time and by the power of some inner prompting well beyond my comprehension felt compelled to pick on a poor defenseless water fowl minding his own business. Or else it wouldn't be posted, right? It is resolution time, or perhaps well past! Many have already compiled their lists and are well into making resolutions a reality. Others have already abandoned a resolution or two and moved on to larger living. Resolutions require a narrowing of focus, a measuring of what is now a reality and quantifying or qualifying what we want to be the new reality. For some reason I keep thinking my resolve for days ahead has something to do with leaving those blame ducks alone! That enigmatic sign seems to be tatooed on my spirit in some way that keeps calling me to ponder.
One of my core values is to endeavor always to leave a place or space better than I found it. But even though I claim that as a core value, I'm not sure I always practice what I believe or preach. Do I always live in a way that leaves a wake of "better?" Perhaps some days that happens more successfully than others. But at any rate, very little in my life really just happens without being purposed. Either consciously or unconsciously, my actions and their impact on the world have something to do with an inner compass. Every now and then, that inner compass pivots toward something other than my True North. Perhaps I am feeling less than stellar about myself and follow a prompting to put someone else down in order to pump myself up. Or maybe my focus aims itself toward self-gratification, and to get exactly what I want at a particular moment in time means someone else's needs have to be ignored or subjugated to my own desire.
So this year I want to find my way back to a dead reckoning on my True North every day. What begins in my heart works its way forward into my actions. What I think and believe and contemplate is ultimately who I am and what I do. The earth IS good, and all that is in it. I want this year to be a time of growing in the certainty that pretty much everything I do has consequences, either intentional or unintentional. I don't want to think of myself more highly than I ought, but it is naive to think that our individual lives happen in a vacuum. Each day there are ripples that begin with me and work their way into larger and larger concentric circles. Each day I make decisions for better or worse, or even for good, better or best. "Best" is a good target and if I miss it, at least I'm shooting in the right direction!
May I so live in this world every day that my purposes align with higher Purposes, and those around me experience some of the incumbent blessings of living in harmony with creation.
Psalm 24: 1 The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
