“April is the cruelest month.” (T. S. Eliot) It was April and as I looked out my window from the Crow’s Nest, I spotted Mr. & Mrs. Canada Goose inspecting the property.
They seemed to aspire to an upscale place to raise their family. After much wandering about with Mrs. Goose in the lead; she appeared to choose a spot out front very close to the entrance of the residence under shrubbery. However, cars were whizzing about and Mr. Gander with his flat feet firmly planted, stood in the middle of the drive and cars had to circumvent him.
After a while they wandered off and to our surprise they had chosen a spot at the south of the building, directly over the chapel. A remote area with no access to human kind. Mrs. Goose settled comfortably into this new abode, scratching together a few grasses and feathers for a nest.
And there she sat for twenty-eight days incubating the eggs. She faced south with her long neck reaching over the concrete edge.
Did she have an audience? Yes, you bet! We, the Sisters, were congregating in other Sisters’ suites following this phenomenon – of a Canada Goose and her trials. She rarely left the nest – squatting and shifting her weight. We discovered that she had three eggs and later four.
April was indeed cruel to her. The weather was rainy and nasty. One evening, I peered out to see her weathering a ‘south-wester’ which reminded one of ‘A Storm at Sea.’
But Mrs. Goose persevered by lifting her body more and propping her feet to protect the incubating eggs. Behold one day three goslings, balls of yellow fluff appeared. Immediately Mother Goose took them on a tour of their surroundings. No food! No water!
She was very positive the little goslings would toddle along behind her. She seemed to give a signal with her tail if one fellow was faltering, but he flipped his little wings and marched on.
Many of us were in a panic wondering how Mrs. Goose would get her little offsprings off the roof, as there was a fall of thirty to forty feet. But she did and one early evening they were gone. Her motherly and patient instinct had conquered all obstacles.
One egg hatched after the family was gone. It seemed to be weak and perished very soon. The Canada Goose Saga has inspired us all. How nature overcomes all obstacles. Now that fall is here and the Canada Geese begin flying south overhead, they may give a salute to the residence on Windermere where life began.
Eileen Foran, CSJ