A Mother’s Day Miracle

I had the most incredible and life-changing experience occur the other day.  But first, let’s go back to the beginning . . .  

For the past week, I had been so sad over the apparent loss of my three goslings.  Primarily, my concern was for the safety of my wildlife, but on a secondary, subconscious level, it represented a “loss of control” in the most important part of my life:  my home.  "Good grief," I’ve been thinking, "while things like a struggling economy, bleak job market and overbearing friends are beyond my scope of influence, I should at least be able to keep order in my immediate environment."   In a nutshell:  further feelings of impotence.

When I observed the missing goslings on May 4^th, I automatically assumed the worst*.  There seemed no other explanation than a dire one.  This “worst case scenario” thinking is representative of my mindset as of late. Without fully realizing it, I had become a “negative Nellie.” 

Then, while doing dishes and dreamily gazing out the corner sink window,  I spotted, wait, one . . . two . . . three . . .four . . . five . . . six . . .  seven goslings!   Imagine my surprise, delight and incredulity!  How could the missing three have magically reappeared?  It made no sense.  I could not believe both parents would leave three  babes alone while feeding. ???  At that point, I recalled the famous quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes:

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,

 however improbable, must be the truth.”

The answer was obvious:  in spite of William’s ferocious territorial tendencies, at some point, another pair of nesting geese had set up housekeeping on the pond!  I had no sooner  expanded my horizons when a visit to the porch confirmed my suspicions.  There, on the bank, were TWO pair of geese:  one with FOUR goslings; the other with SEVEN.

What a wonderful, happy surprise!  The best possible outcome to the missing goslings  conundrum!

I still have no idea how this could have happened.  So many questions remain:  When did the second set arrive?  Why did the two sets never appear together?  etc. etc.  I will never know the answers, but I do know my beloved Canada Geese taught me a valuable lesson in self-awareness—and at the most opportune time of my life.  God works in strange and wonderful ways! As my friend Dr. Schur often reminds me, a wise fairy once said:

 

  “Faith, trust and pixie dust!”

*My own mistake added to the confusion.  It’s obvious I was mistaken when I earlier reported having counted five goslings.