MORNING STROLL

As early as I can each morning, I like to stroll around the perimeters of my yard (an acre), letting the blue spruce, ponderosa and lodgepole touch my shoulders, perhaps annointing me with a bit of rain or dew. The dogs and I take in the scents, our ears reaching for unfamiliar sounds. This morning it was the call of Canadian Geese, so high up that they resembled coyote's calls at night. Searching the cloudy skies I spotted V after V after V of geese in their restless flight to the Northeast. Why? Where were they heading? One wonders. They were small like birds handrawn by a child, each one an out stretched "m" and moving. They exchanged positions, held back to form a new V's, about 200 of them calling, calling. They thrilled me. Our local geese have stopped flying over us twice a day because we are newly in the local airport flight pattern, so we see them less often. I drove up and down the valley for my work later in the day, holding those geese in my mind's eye, loving that we share the skies together, that their raucous song is flying around my mind. They are like cousins whom I haven't seen for awhile, and wish the best for. Cousins now traveling on to parts unknown, leaving behind memories sprinkled around the back yard. Life felt rich and fluid, thanks to them.