I stepped out on the deck to shake a rug this morning and I heard geese overhead flying south. I stayed there until I couldn’t hear them anymore. Something about that sound touches me and I don’t even know why. How do they know when to go? How do they know the way? How do they know how to stay in their customary V and then change off with the lead goose?

I read an article in the Reader’s Digest once which told of an unexpected cold front that came down from Canada to Maine. It caught a flock of geese in flight and because the snow and ice was coming down so thick they had to divert their intentions and wait for the weather to clear. They were there some time and one goose had it’s feet frozen to the ice. The weather finally cleared and the writer told how three other geese came to it and pecked away the ice until the goose could take flight with the rest of the flock. How did they know to do that or why did they bother?

God’s creatures are amazing to me. They all have a sense of purpose and live their lives out majestically even though they are often abused, left behind, dumped out on the road or worse. I am surprised at so many who never take another mate if something happens to their first one. In so many ways they exemplify loyalty and caring better than many of the human species. We’ve seen animal mothers who take on strange orphaned babies and care for them as much as their own.

Well, that is how my first day of January began. Reflective and lost in thought. I haven’t made any resolutions because I always try to do the best I can with what I have and with the best intentions. To the people who read Essentially Esther and I will never see, welcome. Family and friends, dear to my heart, and to all……..may you have a healthy, prosperous, New Year.

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”………….. Norman Cousins

Essentially Esther