Good News!!

When I was a kid, I’d watch geese on either end of winter – flying south in the autumn, or coming back home in the spring.  Occasionally, listening to their distinctive call on the way out of upstate New  York, I would wonder, “Where’d geese go in the winter?”  Everyone knew they went “south”, and I imagined South America, or at least as far as the warm climes of sunny Florida.   

I came to love the sounds of their honking, the distinctive V shape as they made their mad way wherever they were going.  I’d stop sometimes and just listen until I couldn’t hear them anymore and I’d smile at what was being ushered in, or what had just left.  Precursors to spring, or leaving winter in their wake.  It was homey, it was time immemorial, it was good.

Three years ago, when I moved to Northern Virginia, I finally got an answer to the 40 year old question, “Where’d geese go in the winter?”  When geese fly south, they land in Northern Virginia and settle onto water traps on golf courses.  It’s a big mess.  But see?  One of life’s mysteries…solved!  Yet another benefit of uprooting myself and living in this godforsaken land of traffic. 

It was freaking cold today, too freaking cold, and like the rest of the winter weary world, I thought to myself that I was sooo done with the cold and soooo ready for springtime.  Then driving home from work today, I saw several flocks of geese making their way north. 

Good news for my friends and family still in upstate New York.  Spring is winging its way northward.