This morning I had a plan. A quite detailed plan of the things that I would achieve today, as I've said before, I'm a Virgo so I love a list. There was a full page on today's list and I was super enthusiastic to get the ticks happening.
I make my second coffee for the day and sit down on my first phone call, negotiating the details on a deal I'm about to wrap up and look out the back window to see a couple of ducks next to the pool.
Now I love ducks, my son calls me the Duck Queen because like other animals they seem naturally drawn to me, I don't however, love the fact that they crap over everything including in and around the pool. So, out I go to make some noise and scare them out of the pool area, I've not long ago spent quite some time washing the duck poo away so I'm keen to get onto this quickly.
We have purchased something called Duck Off, I kid you not, which you add to the pool. It apparently adds a type of film to the top of the water which the ducks don't like and they consequently don't come back. You are supposed to add Duck Off to the pool when the ducks are around so they can experience it straight away and it's quite costly so we have waited for them to return before adding.
So, now I have a new plan, make some noise, shoo the ducks away, grab the Duck Off, add it to the pool, job done......
Wait, they have babies, 18 of them in fact, so now I don't want to add the Duck Off because baby ducklings often get stuck in pools and can't get out (last year my neice and nephew constructed quite a complex bridge to get 2 babies out). Now I need to make sure all the babies get out of the pool before I can add the magic potion.
Strangely, ducks in a pool move much quicker than I do on land so as much as I dash around the outside of the pool, talking to them the whole time and encouraging them to get out of the pool, the ducks just keep on moving away from me. At one point I realised that my neighbours are all outside with the grandkids playing basketball in the yard and probably thinking I am completely nuts but there's not much I can do about that so I proceed.
Plan B, I'll go inside and watch and hope they decide to leave on their own accord. I do some banking, send some emails and come back out to check and sure enough Mum, Dad and babies are beside the pool. Yay I think, Success, so off I go to put the potion in the pool. Then I see it, the one little baby stuck in the pool. trying his very best to jump out but not quite making it each time, swimming away from me and trying frantically to exit the water. Mum and siblings sitting now on the outside of the pool fence quacking incesantly to encourage the little one I'm guessing.
Now I'm in the ramp construction business again, I find what I can and "construct" a ramp type structure and go back inside so the poor little thing can hopefully find his way out to reunite with his family.
My morning has completely disappeared but all the babies are now back with Mum and Dad and resting in the shade of a tree in the yard, I can safely add the mix to the pool and go back to my list.
I think the message from all of this is that no matter what you "need" to do each day or what you have planned, the universe can always step in and make you focus on the now. Even though many of the things on my list still need to be ticked off, I have had a sucessful morning and feel so grateful that, at least in my mind, I was able to help save one poor little duckling.
Hope you can find a moment of pure joy in your day too!