Peace and Mother Goose

Intention - to post a wonderful daily story about the Mother Goose who has nested 2 feet outside my apartment's back patio door with her mate swimming in the man-made pond around her keeping watch.  Intention never quite works out the way we hope it does at times though doesn't it and I know there are higher lessons here than my humanness is just plain willing to let go and accept right now.  Let me back up a moment.  Last night sitting on my little porch over looking the fountain pond, which offers very little natural view as across the street is a parking lot and office complex, I noticed a Goose couple I've noticed around the past four days since we've been home from Spain.  I also noticed last night one of them appeared to be nesting at the foot of a little tree directly across from me about two feet from our porch while the other goose swam very close.  Both geese got very territorial and angry when anyone got within even 5 or 6 feet of them and I believe they had no idea of my presence, or by some miracle just didn't perceive me as a threat.  This morning, my notion of nesting was validated as the "Mother Goose" had a feather hanging from her bill and all around her nesting area and my son and I watched for quite sometime before school as she pulled feathers from herself to add them to her nest.  Then the most beautiful thing occurred which I had never seen so close up before - Mother Goose stood to turn herself around (I could only help thinking of me when I was so very, very pregnant and shifting my weight constantly to relieve stress from my poor knees and feet) and Sam and I saw her eggs!  I thought this was so grand and lovely.  Here we are just two weeks from Easter Sunday and what could be more symbolic of Easter Sunday and spring than to have a Mother Goose nesting two feet from your door?  The Father Goose was just as adorable never flying off too far from his mate making sure she was protected while she kept their eggs warm.  I was looking so forward to watching over her and protecting her myself and seeing every day if the eggs hatched and sharing the whole life experience with my five year-old son!  I came home about an hour ago to find the nest empty.  What's really devastating to me is that the Father Goose is still here.  I asked about it in the apartment office and was told there was a "guy" who our maintenance guy had most likely called (because this is a common occurrence it seems to have Geese nests randomly appear in such open areas around the apartment buildings) who had come and removed the Mother Goose, nest and eggs.  "What about her mate?"  I asked, to a woman behind the desk who though is very nice was completely clueless to what I was asking about and could offer me no comfort.  She said she would talk to our maintenance guy, Doug (whose garage-office is a few doors down from mine and we are very friendly with) about calling the Goose-Man back.  Doug was not there when I left the apartment office and so I left him a note writing "You need to call the guy back who took Mother Goose and tell him he needs to come back and get her mate!  The mate is lost right now and alone by her nest without her!"  And, he is.  It's heartbreaking to me to see this goose just hanging out in the water by where the nest was just this morning as if he's just waiting miraculously for the Mother Goose to suddenly re-appear on top of her nest.  Just nature taking its course.  How could someone take the Mother and not take the mate?  Father Goose will be there for eternity I think, or unless it freezes and is time for his indoor clock to tell him to fly south.  I asked my husband, "What if you came back to the apartment and Sam and I were just gone along with everything in it?  What would you do?  Would you just immediately leave or would you hang around hoping for our return or some clue as to where we'd gone?"  I hear Father Goose honking now.  A little while ago a Dad with his young daughter and little black dog on a leash stopped outside my door and walked down in front of the empty spot the nest was where just a few feathers are now stuck.  Out of nowhere, the Father Goose slammed himself into the water in front of them, wings flapping wildly and began hissing hysterically at them.  I opened the door and said, "I think he's really pissed you are standing there because that's where his mate's nest was, at least until this morning when 'they' had someone come and take it away."  The Dad said he'd seen the nest and eggs last night and was bringing his little girl by to show her.  My husband says they came to take away the nest because that's what they do to protect the birds - that a dog could come by and eat the babies, etc.  Despite a lovely hour and a half yoga practice and meditation this morning, a glorious sunny day and lunch outside with my husband putting me in a kind of zen mood, I'm having a hard time putting my faith in the people who had Mother Goose removed as having done so for her best welfare, rather than so the apartment isn't infested with Geese and Geese crap.  Yes.  I just wrote the word "crap" on my peace blog.  I guess because "crap" is battling with my inner peace right now, thank you Mother Goose!  And, honestly, this whole scenario initially fed into my deeper feelings about where I'm living and where I'm not living and where will I be living - this kind of limbo I've been adjusting to for a year now which has nothing whatsoever to do with Mother Goose and her family.  So, I guess there's some unfinished business there I need to tend to within myself.  I told my son on the way to school this morning we needed to put our healing light and energy around Mother Goose for safety and protection while she has her babies - now more than ever.  Father Goose is honking again.  "Where are you?  Where are you Mother Goose?"  He needs our healing light and energy too.  We all do. 

Peace and Hafiz

From Simon's "Ten Commitments" - Quotes to Share

by HAFIZ

"When all your desires are distilled you will cast just two votes: to love more, and be happy."

"Everyone is God speaking.  What not be polite and listen to Him?"

"Just sit there right now.  Don't do a thing.  Just rest.  For your separation from God is the hardest work in this world."

"Forgiveness is the cash you need.  All the other kinds of silver really buy just strange things."

"Your soul and my soul once sat together in the beloveds womb playing footsie.  Your soul and my soul are very, very old friends."

"Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, "You owe me."  Look what happens with a love like that, if lights up the whole sky."

"For a day, for just one day, talk about that which disturbs no one and brings some peace into your beautiful eyes."

xo

Return to Peace

I have been back in America four days now and each day I think my body is finally adjusted to the time change.  I'm hoping it's for certain today!  My last blog was on peace and vacation and how I'd been thinking about vacation and what it has meant for me to go on vacation over the years and how that's changed.  I talked to my mom about it a bit and when I specifically mentioned how it feels different for me going away on vacation (because what am I really going away from?) and going home after vacation (because, what home am I really returning to) she suggested that maybe it's not about what I'm going home to but HOW I'm going home.  I expanded this further to include HOW I'm going on vacation.  My mind set.  My spirit.  My being.  Not just getting away or going home and all the senses those thoughts evoke (all the to-do lists at home and work, cleaning my dead fish's tank and all!)  I wrote by hand into a small notebook every day while in Spain - carried it around with me everywhere.  I also read Simon's "The Ten Commitments" and meditated on much of it, as I practiced yoga daily on my balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and sat and just listened to the waves coming in against the shore and the birds talking to each other above.  When I was at the market yesterday standing in line to check out I thought, "what was your most favorite time in Spain?"  Honestly, the answer came quickly.  It was the times, and there were so many, when I just stood still in appreciation.  Appreciation for the waves, the sun, not having an agenda, writing on the rocks extending into the Mediterranean while Sam dug into the sand, appreciation for standing on the terrace of a 900 year-old monetary outside Chopin's cell when he visited, appreciation for the craftsmanship of a chapel just as old and all it's ornate and stained glass wonder, for the English speaking yoga instructor at the Palma studio where I took a class, for the musician duo who seamlessly played Vivaldi's Four Seasons Spring Allegro number 1 movement in our hotel cafe one night after dinner, for all the Spanish speaking people and their congeniality and appreciation for my attempts at their language.  There were so many times when I just sat.  I didn't have a clock to watch.  No agenda outside of eating breakfast and dinner each day at 8AM and 7PM in our hotel dining room.  I am bringing that awareness back with me.  That's HOW I return.  In appreciation to sit still.  xo