How Do You Train Farm Ducks to Fly?

Via Patrick Dongvillo, Oregon

I used to be riding house on a stormy evening, when my headlights all at once defined a solitary goose status within the farm’s driveway. This goose shouldn’t be right here. It’s meant to be within the barn, I believed. With the protection of the farm, home ducks by no means truly learn how to fly; they simply change into fats and glad. So this lone goose would most likely be a sitting duck for some hungry coyote.

However I used to be in my heat, dry automotive, dressed in my just right garments. Out of doors it used to be rainy, chilly, and windy. Even if my internal steering mentioned, “Do exactly it,” my thoughts used to be seeking to persuade me the goose may just deal with itself. Finally, a goose can post a large, nasty struggle with its razor-sharp claws and biting beak. And in most cases, there is not any technique to stroll as much as a goose undetected.

However ultimately I surrendered and braved the typhoon and imaginable damage to save lots of that goose.

The following morning, I opened the barn doorways for the farm ducks, and my flock of overstuffed, lazy sofa potatoes waddled out.

Abruptly the air exploded as a swish, light-bodied goose rocketed skyward. I stood there with my jaw striking open, gazing this thriller traveler disappear into the morning mild. Once I glanced down on the flock, all thirty of them had their heads cocked to 1 facet so they might watch the glorious sight of a fellow goose flying top within the sky. Shocked, I spotted that the evening sooner than I had struggled to save lots of now not a farm goose, however a wild Canada goose.

 

I Can Fly. Who Knew?

What took place subsequent used to be much more implausible and transformative for me.

That day, and for months to return, the entire flock—each unmarried one in every of them—left the safety of the barnyard and residences the place they in most cases spend their days and hiked as much as the best possible level of the pasture. There, to my absolute astonishment, they created their very own flying workout routines: they’d run down the slope, flapping their wings and squawking.

In the beginning, just a few had been in a position to get a bit of airborne. However in time many were given more potent and may just float 3 to 5 toes off the bottom for as much as 80 toes.

I used to be amazed they continued for see you later, after just a glimpse of what used to be imaginable. And so they accomplished nice effects. Those ducks all the time had the prospective to fly. However till they in truth noticed that wild Canada goose, that they had by no means executed anything else however peck across the barnyard.

Now they ventured some distance from their commonplace security and safety and labored to reach a objective, finding out to bounce to no matter extent they might. And even if they had been within the barnyard, they flew around the box, celebrating their freedom.

The Mahanta (my internal non secular information) used to be appearing me one thing essential. I’d like to mention I’m now not like those ducks; I’m now not scared to undertaking out of my convenience zone and safety; I’m really not a waddling sofa potato. However if truth be told, we more than likely all have a bit of little bit of foolish goose in us. But, all it every now and then takes is gazing one amongst us bounce. And all at once we be mindful who and what we truly are.

For me, this revel in used to be a powerful reminder from the Inside Grasp that we’re Soul—nice non secular beings of God. And we don’t need to are living out our days pecking within the barnyard.

In ECK, we truly can bounce spiritually through training the non secular workout routines, creativity, and perseverance. We will be able to be a lot freer than we ever imagined!

—Excerpted from “We Are Soul,” through Patrick Dongvillo, in the 2016 Eckankar Magazine, Quantity 40