This arti­cle is from Evita Ochel, writer at the Evolv­ing Beings web­site.  Evita writes very deeply from a place of mean­ing and pur­pose.  Today she shares her words and insights here.

Life Hap­pi­ness Lessons: What I Learned From a Duck

“The pur­pose of learn­ing is growth, and our minds, unlike our bod­ies, can con­tinue grow­ing as we con­tinue to live.” ~ Mor­timer Adler

Liv­ing on a water­front, in a more nat­ural envi­ron­ment, I have the plea­sure to observe and inter­act with nature in many ways. Whether it is the sun, the wind, the water or any of nature’s immac­u­late liv­ing species — Nature is an amaz­ing teacher. If we allow our­selves to fully see, hear and expe­ri­ence what she presents, we open our­selves up to a wise and infi­nite teacher.

In doing so, we open our­selves up to learn­ing about our­selves, our envi­ron­ment and all that is in it. We invite into our­selves learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that can nour­ish our being and soul, and move us for­ward along the path of our per­sonal growth and evolution. 

One of my most recent teach­ers has been a lit­tle vis­i­tor to our prop­erty, whom in allow­ing myself to observe, I learned more from, than per­haps any book or guru. I named our lit­tle vis­i­tor Ethel — and Ethel is a duck. I warmly share with you here today, in Lance’s won­der­ful space, four things that I learned from Ethel for liv­ing out a happy life.

1. Enjoy the Full­ness of Each Moment
It only takes a few min­utes of watch­ing Ethel, to tap into a com­pletely dif­fer­ent space and time. A space in fact, where time does not exist — where there is sim­ply — now — this moment.

Ethel knows how to enjoy her being, her life and her envi­ron­ment. She is never in a rush to do the “next” thing. She is fully immersed in being. She fully takes in each moment.  With Ethel, there is no multi-tasking. When she is swim­ming, she is in the moment of swim­ming. When she is groom­ing, she is fully focused on groom­ing. The same goes for her rest and feeding.  

May you always remem­ber, to enjoy the full­ness of each moment of your life. Each moment is pre­cious and holds a gift for us, in what it can allow us to be, feel and experience.

2. Be Open To Receiv­ing
On a few occa­sions, I allowed myself to offer Ethel some food. It was a per­sonal expe­ri­ence that I felt was right for me, and allowed me to inter­act and con­nect with Ethel on a dif­fer­ent dimen­sion. Each time, Ethel received passionately.

How many times are you open to receiv­ing, when another being is offer­ing you their help, kind­ness, hos­pi­tal­ity or any other pos­i­tive ges­ture? How open is your heart to wel­come in their per­sonal expres­sion of love?

May you always remem­ber that ‘in giv­ing, you receive’ — and ‘in receiv­ing, you give’. It is only when we allow for this bal­ance within our hearts, that we allow our­selves and oth­ers around us the fullest expres­sion of love.

3. Have a Per­sonal Enough
In those few times that I fed Ethel, one of the most remark­able things was watch­ing Ethel know when she had enough. Ethel may not know when or where her next meal will come from, but she knows that fill­ing up too much at one time, is not going to help her.

Do you have your own “enough”?  Whether it is hav­ing “enough” food, or drink or of an activ­ity, a healthy bal­ance is one of the surest way for a happy life. In our soci­ety, we are not always so good at our per­sonal bound­aries of “enough”. We overindulge in var­i­ous things.

Whether it be some­thing phys­i­cal, emo­tional or spir­i­tual, may you find that sacred space within of know­ing when you have had “enough” — as over­fill­ing on any­thing leads us out of bal­ance, and away from liv­ing out the hap­pi­est life ever.

4. Know When To Move On
As of a few days ago, I stopped see­ing Ethel, but I caught glimpse above head of the ducks fly­ing off in groups. Ethel knew that it would not serve her to stay here forever. 

Although a long flight to a warmer cli­mate is going to take time and effort, and the jour­ney holds a lot of unknowns, Ethel knew that ulti­mately this would be for her high­est good. She knew when her present envi­ron­ment no longer served her, and when it was time to move on.

In the same way, we can look at our own per­sonal rela­tion­ships and places where we reside. Are we open to change and know­ing when it is time to move on?  Are we will­ing to embrace a bit of the unknown, to ben­e­fit our high­est good?

Whether it is a rela­tion­ship with some­one, a work­place, a neigh­bor­hood or a per­sonal ven­ture, may you always know when it is time to move on for your high­est good. Trust that in let­ting go and mov­ing on, you too, will find ‘bet­ter cli­mates’.

“Those who con­tem­plate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~ Rachel Carson

You can keep up with Evita by sub­scrib­ing to her blog, and fol­low­ing her on Twit­ter.