The Family (Or most of them)

The Family (Or most of them)
The Family

September 22, 2006

A LIFE OF MIGRATION




Every morning now, I'm waking up to the honking, almost haunting call of the Canada Geese, one of our greatest symbols of beauty, artistry and grace.

They haven't left yet for southern climes on their annual migration, but they can feel the briskness in the air, see the leaves falling, sense the weather turning, brace for the winter approaching.

Doh! This isn't supposed to be Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

It's just pondering our own "migrations" and the things we see and experience during our own flights. Have a listen and look at the video "One Hundred Years" by Five for Fighting.

Here in Winterpeg, we don't have the luxury of flying to where it's warm all the time.

We're stuck here through four distinct seasons -- sunny summers of 35 C and brutal winters of six-foot-high snow and -35 C. Gorgeous, warm days and brutally cold ones.

No matter what your climate is like, we're stationary objects, for the most part; we can't migrate physically across the entire length or breadth of a continent every year.

Things change, they stay the same. We "migrate" from one relationship to another, from one situation to the next; over time, we're single then we're married then we might be divorced.

We can be content, then we can be restless and discontented. We can feel positive, then negative, be moving forward or taking steps back, we can feel happy vs. sad. Fulfilled/empty.

What's your migration route been like? A smooth flight, or bumpy? Straight between Point A and B, or all over the map? Full of discovery or devoid of new experiences?

Probably, like me, all of the above. But hey...remember we've got 100 years to get it right.

19 comments:

  1. I am so used to gettin' goosed that I hardly even notice which direction I am heading...hey isn't that WWs blue Ford down there...c'mon boys lets hit it!
    Honk Honk Honk schplaaaat!

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  2. I became obsessed with loons when up north this summer, and I'm not talking about a love affair with money!

    Feeling a little melancholy, WW? Just remember that tragedy and comedy are more closely linked than we can even imagine. Shakespeare knew it. Your recent posts imply that you do, too.

    PS My Ford is red.

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  3. HE:

    Same as us all, same as us all. Thanks for shittin' on my car. Now I'll have to wash it.

    Andrea:

    I'm always somewhere in between tragedy and comedy, in touch with my so-called "inner self..."

    Melancholy? Maybe. Isn't there a song called Melancholy Baby?

    Just saw that vid a week or two ago and it stuck. I kinda gather little moments of thought here and there...and PLOP! Out pops a post.

    Always got about 10 blogs on the go in my head or heart somewhere, sometime.

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  4. Yeah, yeah, wax poetic about migrating geese while they cross Virginia and boost my car wash expendtures for the next few weeks.

    But it makes me pull over in a heartbeat to watch those vics in the sky.

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  5. Fronty:

    Yeah, they're brilliant birds. Ever get bitten by one? It hurts!

    They come here by the hundreds of thousands. Lake Winnipeg, about an hour north of us, is I think the ninth largest freshwater lake in the world.

    The marshes that surround it are key wetland areas for nesting and feeding.

    So like I was trying to say in the post, their appearance on the scene is a sure sign of spring but also a sure sign of fall...



    It's

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  6. I'm on the flight path too. I love hearing them flying overhead on a moonlit night and it's fantastic to look out the window in the morning and find a whole flock of them refuelling in the field behind me.

    I feel like I've been migrating most of my life and still my safe haven's nowhere in sight.

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  7. I've been chased by a goose once - didn't feel the need to hang around and get goosed, however.

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  8. Cherry:

    Kisses and hugs, truly.

    You'll find a warm place to land in a big field filled with corn and plenty 'a mates who'll flock to you, incapable of passing you by.

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  9. Fronty...

    No, as you can see, getting goosed is more HE's bailliwick. He's kinda toned it down now, tho.

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  10. He still quacks me up - sorry, couldn't help it, I'll try to do better . . . . .

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  11. No, Fronty, that works. It's cliched, hackneyed, predictable. Just what us journalists are accustomed to.

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  12. Migration - hell, what a journey it's been. Makes you wonder what kind of person you would have been if this thing or that hadn't happened? This post conjures up a lot of stuff that I keep pushed down in order to be able to keep going straight ahead. Actually it could all be summed up: backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and then round and round in circles. Then round and round in circles a bit more. And unfortunately it seems to be cyclic!!

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  13. Lee:

    You've pretty much summed up my life right there too, so join the club and don't be sad about it.

    Of course the thing is to try to keep it pushed down. But it's there, and it never stays down for long, like bad oysters.

    Might as well let it come back up and expel it. Always feels better getting it out. Becomes less cyclic that way.

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  14. heh heh... i haven't moved out of te same city! born here & lived here all my life!
    how exciting is that!?!?!

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  15. as for my "personality" (for lack of a better word)- there have been drastic changes! maybe not so much who i am as how i represent myself...

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  16. Angel:

    What happened to that other "you", the gorgeous but defiant amazon with snakes upholding her upholdables?

    Whatever...the dragon (or is it a seahorse?) with butterfly wings is super cool.

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  17. Angel:

    Doh! Was so taken by your new icon I didn't respond to what you said...

    I guess that was one of my points: it doesn't matter where you've been or haven't been...life is still a migration from one stage to the next.

    And you kind of made that point yourself later when you referred to all these drastic changes.

    If you've hung on to your basic self, which people can tend to question and try to change, even with all those changes, I think that's a good thing.

    :-)

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  18. Somedays I don't have time to dwell on all this.

    Other days....mopping up is all I do...

    But than I got the perfect excuse for my irrational behaviour.

    I AM A FEMALE!

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  19. Gautami:

    Mopping up what?

    Irrational behavior and You're a female: You said it, not me...Ar Ar Ar

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