Mother Goose

Mother's Day has come and gone and it was a most enjoyable day.  My daughter made me a stepping stone for the garden, but she put all the stickers on the wrong side of the glaze so the first rain will wash them away and bring with it tears, I'm certain.  It is beautiful and will have to remain in a rain-free place like my living room.  My son gave me a digital picture frame and loaded it full of family pictures.  Something isn't working quite right though because everyone is either headless or scrunched up like Willie Wonka Oompa Loompas.  We all appear wider than we are tall.  Yes, I have seen that same image reflecting back at me in the mirror, but you convince yourself it’s bad lighting or something.   It's scary that my family is represented by a bunch of headless little people!  Gads!    After Mother’s Day lunch, which was prepared by very wonderful mother, we went to visit the queen of all mothers… Mother Goose.  She lives at the end of my road on a small pond.  Last year a party of wandering geese landed there. (probably drinking and flying)  After a few days of nursing their hangovers, five flew away and two stayed.  They produced seven offspring which we all watched with great enjoyment.  One day, they all flew away.  A few weeks ago, seven geese returned and had their goose rituals and their party going fun.  After a few days, five flew away and two stayed to deal with a sudden pregnancy.   One lone goose sat on her pile of eggs at the top of a small island in the middle of the pond.  We appropriately named her Mother Goose.  We have watched her sit on those eggs day and night, through storms and tornadoes, even through golf ball size hail.  A waiting father paced the shores and was never too far away.  He will swim around her island all day long, probably listening to a little goose bitching.  “… if you had to sit up here all day long…”   But he stays, doing his job, waiting and protecting. (probably hoping for maybe just a little dirty goose talk)  It wasn't long before seven more little balls of fluff stood on the edge of the pond with Mother Goose and Father Goose.  He seems to be standing a bit taller than usual.   They will spend some quality time together swimming patterns around the pond and then I’m sure that they, too, will all fly away.  I made my children watch this goose journey because I think that it is such a good example of what families should be like.  Father Goose was not over at the other pond on his expensive pontoon boat sipping import beer while Mother Goose sat alone in the hail.  Mother Goose put the needs of those eggs first and did not stray from her post even though group after group of geese passed overhead calling her to come have fun and tempting her with goose treats.  When a curious border collie stuck its nose through the fence, Father Goose took a plug out of him, sending a quick message to keep his nose out of their family business.   These are obviously Italian Geese that we are dealing with.  Over the past few weeks, my kids and I have watched the nine of them learn the skills needed to carry them to distant places and return home safely once a year.   They don’t teach these kinds of things in books.  It’s something you have to stop your car for and make your kids get out and drink it all in.     So, to Mother Goose, and mothers who are short, squatty, and headless,  your job is so critically important and Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate the gifts you have given the world.