BRRR! 62 degrees today, fall is here. I had another poignant
sign of Fall this morning. I looked out at 6:45AM as I always do to
check out the beach and to see if anything happened unusual
through the night. There were no geese, in fact all was in order.
It felt like I had just turned around and all of sudden, 32 geese
were on the beach. WOW! Without another thought I proceeded
to go out onto the deck. I am certainly glad that I was dressed in my
sweats as it was chilly. Geese will ignore if they see you and you do
nothing so there is not another opportunity to make a grand entrance
to startle them. I said in a loud voice: “GO”. The geese that are
familiar with me started to head for the water but the other
multitude just looked at me as if to say: “Who is this crazy old
lady who is hollering, she can’t mean me”. Soooo I headed down
through the gate swinging a white (so they can see it) pail. They
moved into the water but were still just curious, they had no
intention of leaving. Once I hit the beach, I started to run and
stamp my feet, swinging the pail and shouting: “GO, GO, GO”.
Geese are like humans in a way, once some of them started
leaving, the fear spread like wildfire. They picked up on the
fact that the geese who live on the lake were leaving so they
decided to go to. But…..only so far. So I filled my pail with
water from the lake and threw it towards them which makes
a big splash noise which enforces what I am telling them. “GO!”
The local geese spread their wings and flew over the buoys but
the new ones did not know what to do. So they kept swimming
around the U shaped buoy protected section and did not like
the rope that held the buoys together. Finally, a couple of them
honked and flew over so then a bunch of them did but still about
7 of them acted confused until they finally decided to spread their
wings and fly over.
This is the time that all geese are gathering together to fly south.
They love my lake as they gather and practice being in formation.
The regular ducks have been gathering for a week so I should have
been prepared for the geese but I wasn’t. I was still in denial (I still
am) that winter is upon us. There will be more congregating because
some years ago, I have counted around 80 to 100 geese gathering for
the big push. I can only hope that the word will spread among
them that they are not wanted on this particular beach.
I find the behavior of ducks or geese and humans are quite similar.
They congregate in packs and if you can startle one then it spreads
like wildfire.
I did have a little thought as I was marching out to the beach that
if they decided not to leave or even to advance towards me, I would
run the other way. After all, there are so many of them and with their
necks stretched up, they were quite big. Yet…..each of them were
thinking singly and each one saw me as a giant and a force to reckon
with without realizing that if they stuck together in their refusal to move,
there was nothing this giant could do to them.
We humans are that way also. We think only of what we see as an
individual and do not realize the force of us joined together would
be a force to reckon with. Just look at what Pastor Terry Jones
has been able to do with a congregation of only 50 people. He is
certainly in the minority, in fact he is not even a decimal point in
the amount of people who do not like what he is doing.
Do you wonder what you can do about it except for just watching
the news?
Do you realize that you could be a force for peace?
I know I was wondering and as I threw the water at the
geese, a thought came to me that I could envision throwing
water on the Beloved Book of the Muslim People as
he would be trying to light it. I “saw” a crowd of us
humans standing there with pails of water that could be
used to stop the burning metaphorically. Let us not be
like the geese in our perception but join together to
be a force to be reckoned with.
I am not Muslim but I am an American and my beloved
country stands for the freedom to practice your faith
regardless of what faith you subscribe to. Yet we also
stand for freedom of speech. Terry Jones has the right
to talk about what he does not like but he does not
have the right to “harm” anyone and the Muslims
would be harmed in their heart and soul if something
sacred to them was harmed.
THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO!!!
Fly the Flag Country-wide tomorrow.
This year, people have agreed to fly their flags everywhere!
Remember the first time 9/11 happened? Everybody put flags
on their cars or houses!
We really showed the world and those terrorists our patriotism,
strength and love for our country!
So on Thursday, September 11th, please put out a flag, any size,
in your front yard, on your house, your car, anywhere to show:
Respect for the symbol of our country, the American flag,
Remembrance for those who died, those left behind, those
fighting to hold our freedoms,
Rebellion against those who try to hurt us, and
Reverence for ourselves and this great country, right or wrong!
Let’s all do this together and pass the word.
Thank you for doing this and God bless you and America!
Love and Light
Mary Grace
www.TheWoundedChalice.com
www.TheWoundedChalice.com/blog
[email protected]
3 Brows Beach Dr
PO Box 403
Wales, MA 01081, USA
413-245-3977