THANKFUL FRIDAY

Last Spring, a pair of geese decided to nest on the roof of the entryway into our building. I had the perfect view of them from my cubicle window and I watched as the female goose laid five eggs. Then we all watched and waited. It takes 28-35 days for a goose egg to hatch and the mother goose sits on those eggs the whole time. She might rearrange herself or stand to stretch a leg for a second, but for all of those days, she is tied to that nest. There’s a ledge around her rooftop nest that makes it impossible for her chicks to to get off the roof on their own. But those five eggs hatched and we had five healthy goslings running around the rooftop until we convinced the window washer to toss the babies off the roof. Once the family had made it to the ground they all tottered off and we assume, lived happily ever after.

The corner of the roof that she chose is not well sheltered from the elements. The mid-day sun directly beats down on her back and there is no protection from the rain. We’ve had a pair of red tailed hawks living in the eaves of one of the taller buildings for years and quite often you see one of them out on patrol or a hunt. Add in the ledge that traps the babies on the roof, this is a terrible spot to raise a family of birds. Yet, the pair came back again this Spring. There was an attempt at deterring them with predator spray, but they insisted and this year the female goose laid six eggs. Monday of this week, all six of those eggs hatched and we had six healthy babies running around on the rooftop. 

When I got to work Wednesday morning, my first action was to look out my window to check on the birds, but they were nowhere to be found. I knew that we had contacted groundskeeping when the chicks had hatched so they could climb up to rescue them, but I guess I didn’t expect them to do it when no one was around. At first I panicked. What if they hadn’t been rescued? Nature is harsh. Talaura, Michael and I stood on a trail for half an hour at Devil’s Tower watching helplessly with a crowd of tourists as a snake devoured the eggs of a nest in a tree with the parents squawking and attempting to defend the nest the whole time. It was horrifying but we couldn’t look away. This is not just a cruel world for women. I managed to track down a groundskeeper while on my coffee walk to confirm that all the babies had been safely removed from the roof early this morning and the whole family had once again tottered off, moving on to swimming lessons. My group was a little more than disappointed to not have the opportunity to witness the rescue this year. We all agree that we’re missing a sense of closure, but we are also relieved to know that they all survived. 

Survival is miraculous. 

For months now I have been trying to gain momentum to get on my yoga mat consistently and not the sporadic routine I have going on now. The dog walks have also been sporadic. Anything involving exercise or getting into a habit of any kind of healthy movement has felt impossible. I am very busy at work right now and I go home to the usual chore list of cleaning and cooking and making sure animals are well fed and loved. By the time I sit down on the couch in the evening, what’s left of my energy gets funneled into a Duolingo French lesson and maybe the crossword. I am eating healthy meals and not using the elevator at work, but I recognize that I am in survival mode. I know I am not a wild animal and in a few weeks it will be easier to delegate the household chores to others. I have all the tools for gaining momentum. I will get back to something more consistently healthy than my current state. While survival may be a miracle, thriving is the gift of surviving. Getting back to something consistent will be more of a thriving situation.

Today, I am grateful for the miraculous, but I am looking forward to the gift.

THANKFUL FRIDAY

Sometime around the beginning of April, I posted a picture of a goose who had decided to set up a nest on the rooftop outside my office. She laid five eggs and then settled in for a month, not moving but to rotate around every once and a while. We saw the goose’s partner only briefly in the beginning. The female goose sat all alone on the rooftop through dropping temperatures and downpours. At one time we even had a camera set up for a live feed of the goose. Then Jeff went to adjust it and accidentally broke the camera. Not just my office, but a number of people became fully vested in the survival of these geese. We worried and fretted over the dangers like our resident hawk and what happens when the eggs hatch.

I was scheduled to be at MBL when the eggs were expected to hatch. So I would check in every once and while to see if any of the eggs had hatched. No babies was always the response. One coworker even went in on Saturday to check. Finally, sometime on Sunday, the eggs hatched and when I got to work Monday morning there were five baby geese poking their little heads out from under their mother’s protective wing. Dad finally reappeared and the family was complete. Then we all started to fret over how these little geese were going to get down from the rooftop. Maintenance installed a ramp, which the geese avoided like it was hot lava. We would stand at the window and watch as they would all get close enough to the ramp to think they might give it ago. Then they’d dart off in the opposite direction. Finally, when the window washers made it to that area, we were able to convince them to toss the babies to the ground. Which they did. Like tossing a beanbag for a game of cornhole. They all landed safely and the family waddled off. We haven’t seen them since.

It does not go unnoticed that these eggs hatched so close to Mother’s Day. For this past month, this mother goose was a daily reminder of the struggles and hardships of motherhood and so many women do this every day alone. They get the kid up and ready for the day. If they’re fortunate, they get this kid fed breakfast before dropping them off at daycare/school. They’re the ones that show up when the school nurse calls. They’re the ones baking cupcakes at midnight for a last minute bake sale. They are the ones most often showing up. My dad did his best to help out with raising me. He volunteered for all the extracurricular activities. He was often in charge my evening meals and Sunday mornings he made mom and I breakfast and served it to us in bed. My dad brought me a tray of breakfast every Sunday morning like I was a gosh dang princess. I think he did pretty well for being raised with patriarchal ideas on gender roles.

Mom also volunteered. She made sure I was up and fed and ready for school each day. She made sure there was a responsible adult around at the end of a school day whether it be a neighbor or instructions to get off the school bus at one of the many church ladies that took turns looking after me. Mom spent countless hours lying on the sewing room floor while I struggled with sewing projects. She listened to me when I said I wanted to play the cello and made that happen by buying me a cello and finding me a teacher. She tolerated my goofiness whenever we were shoe shopping. She was the one who discovered USAO first and told me that this might be the school for me. We visited that school together and the moment we turned into the circle on campus, we both knew she was right. My mom made sure I stayed focused and was prepared for a successful future.

So for today, because it’s Mother’s Day weekend, this Thankful Friday moment of gratitude goes out to all those mothers who diligently sit on those eggs and protect those babies under their wings.

And my mom.