Just one duck -- that's all it took!

A proverb I am fond of is one traditionally attributed to the ancient Chinese: Every journey begins with a single step. This journey begins with a single rubber duck!

It was a hot day in July 2009 and the sidewalks of Padanaram, a small seaside village in southeastern Massachusetts, were jammed with people and vendors there for the annual Padanaram sidewalk sale. As I was making my way through the crowd, I saw Malcolm Johnson, the father of a former student of mine, standing under a big, black umbrella on the corner of Elm Street and Seaward lane. I stopped to say hello and ask him how his son was doing at college. We chatted briefly, and I looked at the fliers on his table. Mr. Johnson was selling ducks for the Allen's Pond Wildlife Sanctuary's annual Duck Derby, the organization's biggest fund raiser of the year. My son, Julian, had been telling me to buy ducks. So--since I happened to have money in my pocket, just enough for one duck, I bought one and named it -- Julian!

The weekend of the Duck Derby I was in the Adirondacks with my daughter Ellie visiting my oldest friend Lise. She had traveled to Keene Valley, New York from her home in France for a family reunion. we had a wonderful few days. We visited The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, New York -- a must see for any nature lover and the brainchild of one of Lise's cousins, Elizabeth Lowe. We talked, we ate, we swam in Long Lake, and at the end of the visit Lise made me promise to visit in in France as soon as I had a chance. It old her that with children still in college it would probably be quiet a while before that chance came along. However, sometimes everything comes together for a purpose.

When Ellie and I arrived home from Keene Valley there was a message on the answering machine asking me to call the director of the Allen's Pond Sanctuary, Gina Purtell. "Call her now," my husband Roger said. "You probably won something." "Maybe a gift certificate to Lees Market?" I speculated as I dialed.

No, it was not a gift certificate, it was The Prize -- The Big One: Dinner for two anywhere in the world. Wow! I immediately called Lise who was still in Keene Valley to say "guess whose coming for dinner?" Lise insists that it was meant to be. I still find it a bit mind-boggling to think that Julian, that lucky duckie, came in first out of more than 4, 000 rubber ducks!