The Unexpected

I was on the city's busy inner freeway system (as opposed to it's outerbelt) this afternoon en route to the house. As I was taking the curve of the on-ramp I noticed this flock of Canadian geese heading south (smart birds to be heading that direction....a couple months too late perhaps as we currently are experiencing 9 degree days and 6" of snow) flying over the car. Now we have lots of that feathered species here in the city. That wasn't what drew my eye. What captured my attention was the extremely large number of them traveling together.

Please know that I understand I should have been paying attention entirely to the road and the surrounding vehicles as I was the "merging traffic" but, my heavens, there had to have been 60 plus in this group. And what was wonderouly advantageous was that I had to take the southern leg of the system to reach my destination. I realised that I had just been given this incredible gift. Watching this enormous number of participants in the fabulous, fluid aerial ballet made me speechless. To observe the individuals maneuver their bodies into ever changing positions in this sort-of-rounded, wavy, assymmetrical movement was simply, beautiful. It reminded me of flowing seaweed in an ocean's currents. You know what that looks like. You can close your eyes and see a colorful picture of that scene in your head. Weaving this way and that way in an ever-moving slow motion display of un-earthbound grace.

With one eye (just kidding) on the road and one eye anxious to keep tabs on the progress of the birds I was rewarded when one brave soul burst forth and took the lead. How couragious is that - with the frigid temperature and the full force of the wind at their altitude. The others then started to fall into their instantly recognizable and distinctive V formation. By that time I had travelled ahead of their position and lost sight of their progress. What a glorious last memory.

I was going to write about something totally different today but the sight of nature's artwork in the sky erased all other thoughts. Wow. And that "wow" is said very quietly from my heart. I have no idea if any other person who was in the vacinity even took note of that beauty. Perhaps not. Perhaps I was the only lucky recipient of that dance. Wow.