It was dark in there, cramped, cold and lonely when she woke up. Besides that, she was getting hungry. So she broke out of the place. I mean, whatever was on the other side had to be better than this.
When she finally got out and started stumbling around, she saw a bright new world with lots of other beings in it. As there were no mirrors, she had to trust in the things the others said. They called her, of all things, an Ugly Duckling.
Well. You know how the rest of it goes. There she was, in that barnyard, just minutes out of the egg, and the rest of the animals were all over her with the ugly duckling thing. Personally, I’ve never seen an ugly duckling. But, I’ve only raised two ducks — Piper and Jordan — so maybe mine were incredibly cute, on the duck-good-looks-scale.
Anyway. She wandered here and there. On her own. She spent a terrible long winter in some cave, near a frozen lake, trying to keep her tail feathers warm. But she did what she had to do, each day, to make it. I imagine she took good naps, played piddly games, thought about the beaches in the Caribbean. She made each little moment, something.
Then. Finally. Spring rolled around. Things got warmer. The lake thawed. And guess who descended down on the lake? A flock of swans. Beautiful swans. She couldn’t stand the cave any longer, so she decided to take her Ugly Duckling self out on the lake and try to be with the beautiful swans. Of course, she was one of them. They partied. Tapped their little webbed feet. It was happy. And they all flew off together, she spreading her wings, flying with them. Soaring.
Pooping on freshly washed cars below.
Big miracles, depending on where you are standing. Or flying.
Today is Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday. He wrote the Ugly Duckling, along with a lot of other good stories, like The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Red Shoes, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, and more. Born a day after April Fools in 1805. His life is quite the story too. Born into a poor Danish family, but making his way to being a national treasure of Denmark. But he had sadness in his life too. While the masses loved him for his stories, in his own heart, Hans never found true love.
But. His tale of The Ugly Duckling can remind us about other things. Things in our own lives. Like right now, this time we are in. Stuck in our own caves of “shelter in place” and “self-quarantine,” and it appears that the “thaw” is a long way off.
We can’t see ahead. And if we could, how would that make this moment any better? It was all designed for us to see only so far as this minute. This one right here. You, sitting in your chair, drinking your coffee, reading this story.
The best moments are the present moments. Those most powerful moments. In each minute, we have the ability to make choices. One at a time. In those choices, we can find specific moments of happiness, of joy, of peace. That which will carry us, and fuels our souls.
Eventually, things will “thaw” out. We’ll swim out on the lake, we’ll even fly.
But remember.
This entire time. For all these minutes. YOU’VE been the beautiful swan. And here comes another minute.
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“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”
— Kahlil Gibran
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“Moments.
All gathering towards this one.”
― Jenny Downham
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“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
— Henry David Thoreau
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