serendipitous honking
[Following on from leaving the stables of beloved horses and preparing to wing it in France'. Chapter Break entitled 'Wild Geese']
‘Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings these are a few of my favourite things…’ from ‘My Favourite Things’, Soundtrack The Sound of Music
How does life orchestrate serendipitous and synchronous moments? The writing of this brief interlude happens over a long weekend at our mum’s and starts with the sentence
‘I’m not a huge fan of the goose, especially close up and hissing…’
As if to correct me, some geese at the bottom of the lane from our mum’s house start honking loudly. I laugh.
Their correction is apposite. Being chased by geese may be terrifying – especially when you’re small – but their honking is one of the most confident sounds on earth.
And the serendipity doesn’t stop there.
Those of a certain age won’t need me to explain about Old Mother Goose. The Tales of Mother Goose by Charles Perrault were rhymes and stories for the very young. They include Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood and were designed to quiet children – often read at bedtime, although my own memories are more of nightmares about the Big Bad Wolf. Consequently, geese are often considered a totem animal of the story-teller and poet. This is imprinted on me as much as a gosling is imprinted by the first animal it sees…
But I’d forgotten that the symbolism of the goose – apart from its vigilance and protective nature – is also about parenting. Geese mate for life and both share in the raising of the young.
On returning home, looking up my journal notes about goose, I read ‘Readiness to take on responsibility of parenting…’
Now, you wouldn’t think this would have any relevance for a sixty-six-year-old with no children! But there is a difficult yet tender time when ‘parenting the parents’ arrives.
I cannot say more except that immediately after reading that – in an utterly unexpected fashion - the adopting of such a role has just been confirmed. And with it a calm sense that ‘response ability’ carries no obligation, it is simply being open to responding to ‘the other’, or as I would term it ‘Love verbing’. We are almost ready to start a new chapter but the geese, of course, have to have the last poetic words...
#goose #symbolism #synchronicity
Honk! Honk!