Wild Geese

The geese were pouring in this weekend (extra) from Iceland and Greenland. The early hours were full of the sound of skein after skein flying overhead ... they haven't managed to organise themselves yet and there was much disorientation and discussion as some headed on to the marsh and others over to the fields. The early morning on the marsh was still, warm and beautiful.

Mary Oliver was very  much on my mind  ...

Wild Geese - Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Later: I'm still pondering and distilling the journey south. Driving down I had been listening to Bruch's Kol Nidrei  and the lovely section at around the 6:30 mark on the recording which has an eternal quality and a strong feel of acceptance like Mary Oliver's poem, for me (back again to unconscious connection threads and the collective unconscious) - and that phrasing repeats again at about 10:15.  And then, on arrival, the wonderful late flourish of summer. The last time the geese will be heard flying overhead with their haunting echo that carries us from summer to autumn and past to future. Moving through the house from one care home zone to another, slightly dissociated with a sense of walking timelessly through history watching it unfold, everything oddly echoing.

And then, the remarkable swinging in of a palliative care team and the lovely Gerry who understood so well what needs to be done including having a cup of tea with the carer because he knows that he is in and out and they are the ones that keep going on their own when he has done his bit.

And now, I must get my head in to a work zone ....