You never know where you’re going to go when you start writing.

I love the Snow Geese so I am always happy to see them in the fields. Such explosive beauty! They are majestic whether settled to sleep on land, paddling on the river or rising to fly in formation.

Normally, it would be enough for me in a musing to remember that. They bring such joy.

But the other Sunday Katie Hays read one of her poems, i think it was called “Conversion.” She talked about a migrating bird, hiding in the thicket. And I thought of all the exiles. All those people with no place to lay their heads or their babies. No containers for their lives.

It makes my heart break.

These geese are travelers who make their home on the road, in the sky on the rivers? how do you determine that?

But the exiles are running from what they once loved that is no longer safe. Their welcome is very uncertain. The geese know these fields, this river, these air currents. The immigrants do not.

Let us offer them all safe journey and safe places to rest at night. Let us offer them safe homes. “For we were once strangers in the land of Egypt.”

So, my friends the lovely Peace of the Snow Geese to you. And traveling Peace to those who are far from home. And welcome to those who would no longer be strangers. And I pray with you who would like this to be a migration that takes you safely home.