For over four months now I’ve had a new walking route. One I’ve thoroughly been enjoying.

For over thirty years we had an open field behind our home. Now there are seven new homes with more on the way as the field was developed into lots. With that, it brought a lovely and quiet winding road. Instead of walking the sidewalk that runs alongside the noisy highway for part of my walk each morning, I now enjoy a more serene walk on this newly paved road.

The road takes me past the backside of a pond that runs alongside the back of a senior assisted living facility. This pond has been, and continues to be, the home of many geese and the families they raise. It has also seen a few duck families too. It is also the place I released a small lost chick that was wondering our yard one summer hoping that one of the families would take it in as their own which I understand they often do.

There had been talk about draining the pond because the construction company didn’t want to care for the uptake of it. I remember when I heard that my heart went out to the seniors living at the facility and how no doubt the sight of geese and baby goslings have brought them much joy. Fortunately, it was decided not to drain the pond.

Today as I was winding my way back home along this road I saw two geese laying on the ground on one of the lots. No home is there yet, so they had it all to themselves. Just the day before I watched as four geese in another area of the subdivision raised quite the ruckus when a neighborhood dog, Lucy Lou was walking by. Lucy Lou, a cattle dog, now eleven years old, walks much slower these days, slowing down with age. But the geese didn’t know that and were raising quite the ruckus with their loud honking. It made me chuckle to myself.

As I walked by the two geese that had taken up residence where there will soon be a home I smiled. I thought to myself how they just made themselves at home. Then as clear as day in my mind I heard, “We were here first.”

I was startled at first but then realized this as truth. How soon I’d forgotten there was a field behind our home all those years that attracted many geese, as well as, Sandhill Cranes. Now they were being displaced because of the new homes being built.

My eyes filled with tears as I continued my walk. At times I can feel overwhelmed by situations like these because I wonder what it is I can do. How can we live in harmony together, I wonder? I know many consider geese a nuisance and don’t like having to watch where they walk because, well, just like all animals, and people… they poop!

How often geese are killed because we don’t want to deal with their natural behaviors. As I continued to walk I decided I’d find a non-profit organization that is working to help educate about geese and help their cause and make a donation to support those efforts. And that is just what I did.

I share this not as a ‘pat on the back’ thing, but as a way in which when we feel helpless like I did today, to find a way in which we can do something. We just never know how that small gesture can have a positive impact.

XO

Barb

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