It is early February, but has been an uncommonly warm and almost snowless winter. It feels like spring already. The groundhog has predicted an early spring - a rodent is not needed to tell us this... there are other signs that spring is on it's way.
There is an urgency to the dogs running and sniffing - like a rediscovery of a world that has been missed... there is a lightness in the steps and faces of those walking in parks and on streets... there is a bright slant of sun that feels just a little warmer..
Walking slowly on the path, head down, lost in thought and kept company by my snuffling companion, I am pulled into the world by a call of changing seasons... It takes a while to realize what I am hearing and longer to believe it. Across a wide green windswept field and over a cold pond comes the unmistakable sound of low flying geese.
This was not a stray gaggle of geese that sometimes winters near urban centres. This was wave upon wave of great formations moving across the blue expanse. They moved like crests about to reach shore, undulating, breaking apart and reforming... Dozens and dozens of geese, hundreds of them, giant vee shaped lines, one after the other - the lead formation calling the way - the others following their lead.
It is like they are calling spring to follow them - or pulling it along with them in their wake - an invisible tow line behind them dragging spring toward the strengthening sun. The geese have called to spring and it has answered "I'm coming".
The geese are driven to bring forth the spring. It is their duty that has been entrusted to them - and for centuries they have fulfilled the charge. Come the fall, they will call away the sun, announcing the colder weather. But today, they herald the coming of spring - they sing it to me and I can't help but smile. My four legged companion watches them move across the sky too - and his steps seem lighter too. We watch them together, until they have passed beyond our sight.
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