Ducks

Love this. An illustration a friend used recently in her newsletter. A pair of ducks....

One all happy looking. The other dirty and sad.

Real rubber ducks produced from a bag whilst my friend was talking to a woman at a retreat centre.

“I want you to be able to hold them together as you share your story” said the woman to my friend.

Pair-of-ducks. Paradox.

So she did.

At the time she was in transition. Leaving behind a life in Cambodia to start again somewhere new. Remembering the good times. Re-living the tricky ones. Sad not to be there. Relieved not to be there.

"As I told my story I dared not say, “I needed to go through this so I could…” I just held the ducks together in my hands, open.....

Sometimes, we try so hard to create a meaning out of things, to force a picture out. When maybe, it’s just in seeing both the beautiful and the ugly in our hands...."