Four Ducks

 

Four Ducks on a Pond,

by William Allingham

Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing;
What a little thing
To remember for years-
To remember with tears! 

I know I have posted this poem before but we had some spring-like days and it is my favourite spring poem. It is such a paradise earth poem. I do love Spring and Autumn, but my rather unsociable introvert personality prefers Winter to Summer.

Although having said that, my childhood summers were a wonderful oasis from the horrors of school. The summer holidays seem to go on forever back then. And we always seemed to be outdoors. Even though we lived on the edge of the inner city, there were lots of places to play - the parks, the bomb sites, and of course the moors - only a bus ride away.

And for some reason this poem makes me think of washing blowing on the line. All the mothers hung out their washing to dry back then, which was ecologically very sound. And I imagine us all doing that in the paradise earth - billowing washing lines blowing in the Spring breeze, white clouds scudding across, ducks on the pond!

And the ducks will be happy too. They will be safe. We won't be eating them, and no predators will be after their darling little fluffy chicks. I am trying not to remember an awful "nature, red in tooth and claw" moment at the Arundel Wetland Trust when a giant seagull...

I will leave it there. And look forward to a time on earth when such moments are no more.

We got to our Bible student on Wednesday morning and had a lovely session with her. We are talking about the creation - how we learn from it, and copy it. For example, the shape of the Japanese bullet train was inspired by the shape of the Kingfisher.

Now we often, and rightly, praise the inventors of all these marvelous things. And much credit to them. I am sure I could look at a Kingfisher for eons and never come up with a toy train, let alone a bullet train. And if it was up to me, we would still be trying to reach the moon by horse and cart. But do we ever stop and thank the Grand Creator, Jehovah?

The more we learn about the wonders of creation, the more we should. This world, this universe we float in, is a miracle, and it will bring us more joy and happiness than we can now imagine. And that is what our loving Creator, Jehovah, wants for every one of us. And this is what we so much want our Bible student to know.