It was early this morning that the Canadian goose was gone. Her black and white head had remained erect, her dark eyes weary but vigilant for weeks. She had endured sun, rain, and cold. He body had shielded her eggs, it being the only thing between the next generation and everything else.
She chose this place for the third consecutive year.
And this was a hard place, a parking lot island with a bit of green grass and a bit of pine straw, only shaded by an mangled tree during a couple hours in the morning. The parking lot is bigger that it ever needed to be. It’s never more than 60% occupied. I heard the senior executive declare proudly, “We’ve paved every part of campus that we could.” The parking lot is surrounded on all sides by busy streets with heavy garbage trucks and other types of trucks that accelerate aggressively. What noise! I have no idea where she gets water or food? How does she have the strength to hold her head up so high?
It’s not ideal an ideal place to start a family, but I assume it has served well enough in the past.
I wandered the parking lot periodically throughout the day. Did animal control take the goose away? Had someone wandered too close and had she bitten them in nervous self-defense?
This afternoon, taking a break from the all-but-uncomfortable humming pressure of the office, I walked along the row of electric vehicle chargers when I spotted Mama Goose. She was accompanied by another grown goose and 4 little chicks. They waddled across the asphalt and up the curb, finally reaching a grassy, shady spot. The chicks struggled up the curb and finally joined their parents to search for another of their first meals.
My mind floated back to when Melissa, my newborn son, and I entered our apartment for the first time since leaving the hospital. Our two-year-old daughter and her Abuela arrived minutes after. After Abuela met the new baby, she left us to rest in bed. I looked at Melissa, our daughter, and our sleeping infant. A wave of peace hit me. It was the peace of knowing that this is my family and we’re going to be okay as long as we take things one day at a time. Melissa felt it too. The kids must have felt it too as they relaxed on top of the comforter with warm sunlight shining through the window.
Three years later, I felt another wave of peace watching that goose family resting in the shade, on the grass.