traumatized ducks

Life is difficult.  Have you noticed?  For some, it goes beyond difficult to traumatic.  We've heard a lot about soldiers returning from combat who experience "post traumatic stress disorder", PTSD.  A sister-in-law of mine recently went to a workshop to understand better how PTSD is a very real reality among the civilian population, not just in the military.  That's because in the spiritual realm we are all soldiers in a life and death battle against an enemy who doesn't fight fair, who delights in turning families and churches into war zones.  In the very places where there should be healing and restoration, all too often we find tension, distrust, criticism, even out and out attacks and tearing down of others.  Some seem able to survive such conflict relatively unscathed, but many with more sensitive natures show all the same symptoms of a soldier who's been traumatized by the horrors of the battlefield.

Animals can also be traumatized.  This Fall we were given 5 ducks to take care of.  The only facility we had for them was with our chickens, so that's where they ended up.  They had been raised in someone's backyard where I think there may have been a few chickens around as well.  It's always somewhat traumatic, though, to move an animal (or a person) away from the familiar environment they grew up in to a new and unfamiliar place.  But what made this transition even more traumatic for these ducks was that all of a sudden they were thrown together with 25 chickens who already had their pecking order figured out.  So these newcomer ducks were forced to the bottom of this societal order, even if they were birds of a different feather.  And yes, birds of a feather do indeed flock together, whether it's to pick on the new guys or if it's to flee from the persecution from the "higher uppers".These poor ducks would spend the whole day huddling together in a corner of the chicken coop, refusing to go outside unless I chased them out, which I did.  Of course, when the chickens saw me chasing the ducks to get them to go outside, they were more then happy to join in the chase and would set up a gauntlet for the ducks to have to run through before they made their escape outside.  And when it was dark, I would have to chase them back into the coop because if left to themselves they would have spent the night huddled in the corner of the chicken yard.  I never saw them eat while the chickens were around the feeder (which was all the time), so I guess they scrounged food at night when the chickens went to bed.

Well, I thought that eventually things would settle down and everyone would learn to get along okay. But when weeks passed with no seeming improvement, I decided I'd better set up a different arrangement where these ducks could be on their own without having to live under the harassment of 25 chickens.  So I moved them to the barn where they could share the pasture with 2 cows we recently got, which turned out to be the right move.  The cows were inquisitive and curious at first with the ducks, but made their peace much quicker then the chickens had.  But the ducks still haven't gotten over their nervousness and will run away as fast as they can, quacking all the while, if you try to get too close to them. Fortunately, they're finally getting used to the idea of going outside without having to be chased out.  But one time when I did chase them out, they didn't stop running, and made a beeline for the fence which divides the pasture from the chicken yard.  And then I witnessed a most amazing sight!  Two of the ducks took to flight.  Now I have seen some chickens fly a short distance, high enough to get over a five foot fence.  One of these ducks did a chicken style flight.  It was of short duration and not very high.  But the other one - wow! - it just kept climbing higher and higher, about 20 feet up in the air,  It easily flew over into the chicken yard where I guess it thought that maybe now it would be granted special privileges for showing such an awesome display of aerial skill.

There has only been one more display of this feat by the same duck, but it now seems to be content to stay more grounded.  But I suspect Flying Ace has gotten a new lease on life, like those spent hens. She (or he, I don't know its gender) has discovered that she was created for more than just waddling along the ground.  When the time is right I have no doubt that she will again take to flight with greater confidence and maybe even with a tinge of joy, don't you think?

Were we created for more than "waddling along the ground." nervously trying to keep our distance from everything that threatens us?

   Do you not know?
      Have you not heard?
   The LORD [YHWH] is the everlasting God,
      the Creator of the ends of the earth.
   He will not grow tired or weary,
      and his understanding no one can fathom.
   He gives strength to the weary
      and increases the power of the weak.
   Even youths grow tired and weary,
      and young men stumble and fall;
   but those who wait on the LORD [YHWH]
      will renew their strength.
   They will soar on wings like eagles;
      they will run and not grow weary,
      they will walk and not faint.
                                                    (Isaiah 40:28-31)