I am fluid, I am grace. Although I stay in the one place I also move from place to place. I see and feel everything near me and it was I who comforted the Ugly Duckling when no-one loved him.

The Ugly Duckling loved to swim on me and dive letting the water close over his head, it gave him comfort. He was chased away from his mother by the other ducks who pecked him and abused him, the poor thing. I gave what comfort I could but he really needed his own kind.

Two wild geese were kinder, they asked him to join them but pop, pop went the guns and the geese were gone.

Some time later the weather changed and got colder and colder, I stopped flowing quite as well as before as my own metamorphosis happened. I change twice a year, once in the cold weather I stop flowing and become hard on the top. The Ugly Duckling tried to keep that from happening around him but I have no power to stop it so one day I became hard around him and stopped him going anywhere. The man was kind and broke me enough to free the Duckling and take him away. Hurt me? No, I felt no pain from that crack. I healed up slowly as the weather got even colder and just waited.

One day, after the weather had warmed up again and I was flowing again the duckling saw some beautiful swans flying. He went towards them, bowed and looking at his reflection in me he finally saw he was beautiful just like them. He wasn’t an Ugly Duckling after all but a beautiful, graceful Swan. It was lovely to see and he never forgot how he felt when swimming around on me or diving down to the bottom for food. I was always there for him.