A duck walks into a bar, hops up on a stool and asks the bartender, "Got any gwapes?"
The bartender, shaking his head in derision replies, "No, ye daft bird! This is a bar! Your choices are beer, wine or liquor."
Disappointed, the duck leaves.
The next day he returns, waddles up to the bar, plops up on the stool and when the bartender asks, "What'll ya have?" The duck asks, "Got a gwape?"
The bartender gets really ticked off, "I told you, no, I don't serve grapes. Now, get the hell out of here, and if you come back here again asking for grapes I'm gonna grab a hammer and nail that beak of yours to the bar!"
The third day, the duck is back and on his usual perch. When the bartender asks, "What'll ya have? And it better not be grapes..." the Duck enquires, "Got a nail?"
Taken aback, the bartender concedes, "No."
"Got a hammer?"
"No."
"In that case," says the duck, "Got any gwapes?"
Ducks and consciousness and awakening
What if after a lifetime of waddling around quacking and flapping like a duck--and bored with the whole thing--in a sudden fit of rebellion you belly up to the bar and ask for a "gwape?" No processing, no additives, just a straight-up, simple piece of natural fruit straight off the vine. Juicy, delicious, satisfying all in itself....but to the world around you, it seems like you threw a wrench into the works.
In that single moment, a lightbulb turns on and you get this warm and tingly feeling spreading outward from your heart to the very tips of your head, fingers, toes and beyond...."I'm no duck!" you declare. "I may be ducky and all that, but I JUST KNOW I'm so much more than the old act I've had going of trying to be the best, brightest, biggest, most beautiful or handsome duck on this pond!"
And from that moment on, all that matters to you is discovering what that "more thing" is. You research the hell out of it, pay for all kinds of classes on the subject, and try practicing all kinds of rituals, rites and disciplines with other like-minded ducks. They are fun for a minute, because it's always a joy to know you're not all alone. But you never ever really arrive at the more you just knew you were.
So, time passes as you try out all these tangents like:
Maybe I need to waddle my 10,000 steps a day a little faster, kneel more (not easy for a duck) and pray a lot.
Maybe I need to practice quacking these tones and hold these specific poses while I salute the Master Quacker/(fill in this blank with your latest authoritative deity).
Maybe I should try out DA (Ducks Anonymous) and talk about what a disappointment I am and how I'll probably screw up again tomorrow if someone tempts me with a malt duck fizzy and I fall off the wagon and lose my badge of "30 Days Ducky."
Maybe I should go on a diet--give up fish and eat moss so I'm shinier. Am I shinier? I think I AM shinier....Just look at my golden bill!
Wow! I've got the answer! And now I can teach others how to be more using my method, which I'd better patent because I'll make a whole lot of bills helping others....
Why aren't all the "Atta-duck" pats on my back from the rest of the flock ever enough?
And one day it dawns, "Regardless of the pond size and whether I'm playing the role of Lord-of-the-Pond Duck or Insignificant Peon Fish-Fetcher, I'm still a dam duck doing the same old things, just with a slightly different swim stroke."--You know the old adage: different strokes for different folks.
So you give up, waddle around the pond a bit all by yourself, reflecting and reminiscing and sometimes bawling, sometimes laughing at your ducky antics....and coming to the realization that maybe I need to just quit swimming upstream against the current and instead float, bob along with the ripples, go with the flow, take time to more sensually feel into myself and the world around me....yeah....I'll just enjoy myself and get serious about no longer taking myself so seriously.....
Sometimes I quack myself up....
That is consciousness and awakening and realization all summed up. I credit my brother, Steve, with this post. The duck joke was one of his favorites to tell. He crossed over the Veil back in 2016, so while I talk to him using my words, he communicates with me in a more subtle way. I can't even explain it really. I just know when he's in my awareness.
Anyway, Steve and I both experienced that awakening to whom we really are and we both tried out all the tangents in our search for that illusive-seeming god, who actually resides within every human being. It's all within you, me--that awareness that breathes "I exist! I am that I am!"
Assume your own soul and wisdom is right here within and with you in every breath in and out....and have a great laugh at all life as a duck has to offer....
No comments:
Post a Comment