The Silly Little Goose

Today was a day off from school for Zack.  It was a non-contact day for parent teacher conferences.  Zack was extremely luckily in the fact that his "team" of teachers didn't schedule a conference for us since we had a meeting in late September concerning his IEP (Individual Education Plan).  This made the entire day a free day as we had very few commitments other than appoints with both of Zack's psychologists. 

Besides these appointment we spent a good part of the day running around taking care of things that had slipped over the rest of the week.  At the end of it all, I needed some peace and quiet and so we headed out to Chatfield State Park in the late afternoon.  Since I am still on crutches we weren't going any place to hike, I just wanted to get outside and being in nature - so I took us to one of the wetlands overlooks far into the park.

The overlook has a number of benches that are built up on a raised area of land so that you can see a long distance out into the wetlands.  I enjoy sitting there in the silence of the outdoors watching the birds come and go from the swampy wetlands and open water.  Watching large flocks of geese and ducks come in for a landing or take off by running over the water is enjoyable to me.  The manner in which these birds use their wings and muscles to take flight or come to a rest in the water just amazes me.  Their wings seem so delicate and graceful but they give flight to these birds and are so strong as they come in for a landing.  It is something that I just can never understand how they do it.  To me it is a mystery of nature and it is captivating.

Due to the season there are lots of geese migrating through Colorado at this time.  They arrive over the wetlands in great V's sounding as through they are a highway of trucks bearing down upon you with all of their honking.  Once they decide to land the lead goose will pick a glide path that will bring the entire flock down in an open stretch of water.  As they glide closer and closer to the water the ducks begin a braking motion with their wings that slows them down dramatically til they practically just plop down into the water.

Watching the geese take off is adventure of another sort as you always wonder if they are going to pick up enough speed to take off.  They will run along the water, furiously flapping their wings until they gain enough momentum to leap into the air and start flying.  Each time I see a flock of geese do this I get chills down my spine just because of the natural beauty of the act.

Occasionally you will see what I always call the "silly little goose".  It is the one goose that seems to get separated from it's flock.  You can see his one goose flying off in a direction different from one of the V's and you wonder where it is going.  For me it always funny as I watch the "silly little goose" I always get a lump in my throat and wonder if it is OK?  I always feel a sense of warmth and great concern come over me for that silly little goose and I worry about it so much.  Today as I sat there on the bench I saw one of these geese and so I thought a lot about that "silly little goose" and just hoped it was OK and that it would find it's way back to where it supposed to be.

As I write my blog post today I am exhausted and my left hip in is agony because of the crutches.  I walked so much on them today that so much of my body has been totally thrown out of shape.  So for the rest of this evening I am going to rest my body and ready it for another busy day tomorrow.  After Zack and I finish a number of errands early tomorrow I hope to take the rest of the weekend and rest and hibernate to allow my leg to continue it's healing.  This should be the absolute last weekend of rest as I am supposed to be able to start putting weight on my left leg at the beginning of next week.  All I can say is I can't wait!!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead.

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.