Tag Archives: migration

Peace Migrations

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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.

EverydayPeaceWednesday13Mar30

Honking for Peace and Memories

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The returning geese carry such memories for me. There’s a road I drive along the river that gets me to most places I travel. In the late Winter and early Spring, there is a field that helps you keep a fairly close tab on what’s happening in the bird world.

The field is mostly corn stubble and it seems there’s plenty for migrating flocks to dine on. Hundreds and hundreds of birds hang out. It’s just a short flight to the river where you also find them.

The river is the expressway the birds travel.

This road is the last road my father rode. I asked the driver to stop and let him see the geese who were migrating then. It had been a colder winter, they were a bit later. But I now measure my grieving for my dad by the migrating of the geese. Ah, I remember…

March is living up to its myths. Today it will be warmish — 15˚ above normal and then a new front blows in and it will be chilly again. Wind and bluster coming up.

This is one of those periods when I find it hard to understand why people long to dash on to the next season. So much happens now. There is so much to see! Change happens now! Slow down, be amazed.

Let’s make Peace with the changes. And let’s allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the extraordinary things that happen. We live on an amazing World. The more we appreciate that, the better care we’ll take of it. And the Earth needs our care. The geese are arriving, honking of Peace. I used to think of harbingers as quiet peaceful things. Not the geese! The weather roars and soothes by turns. Let us Peace. Every beautiful day.

EverydayPeaceTuesday9Mar1