goosey night..............................

[bLISs]

noooo...i'm not talkin' about the night before halloween.......

oh, you guys...wait til you hear THIS!!!

last night at dusk my daughter and i decided to go to the community pool here and go swimming together. i left my 17 month old son with my mother so dd and i could have some 'alone time' as she needs so much...

so we walk into the pool area via gate and when i look up to the pool itself i notice that beyond it, in the shallow kiddie pool that has a fountain (it wasn't on) there were.........................................................

2 BEAUTY-FULL geese floating slowly and contently around in it.

i was in AWE. i have never seen that before. a goose in a pool. thankfully the pools here are mildly chlorinated and are mostly salt water pools. lately they don't taste real strong (not that i go around tasting pool water but hey, i'm a curious one when it comes to that kind of stuff...an unschooler at heart i believe...).

i whispered to my daughter as i gently stopped her and said 'shhh...look at the kiddie pool........................' and she looked and her eyes got big as saucers like mine did. we were both in absolute heaven standing there looking at these beautiful birds slowly swimming around the kiddie pool. it was serene and comical at the same time to me.

so we slowly made our way into the big upper pool which was right before the kiddie pool. we quietly swam and observed them not wanting them to leave too soon. it was a really neat moment for my daughter and i. i felt our connection increase as we were in the presence with these 2 geese. it was magical. for some reason, these geese were there with just my daughter and i. 2 and 2. hmmm. goose medicine. i'll have to google that. you hear about buffalo medicine, wolf medicine, even swan medicine i think...but never goose medicine. they must have some sort of medicine. in fact, i KNOW they do. i felt it. i was in it...basking in the soothing balm of their 'medicine' for sure. if the native americans never noted about that i'm sure they experienced many a moment w/ that. how calming and beautiful it is to just 'be' with wild animals...being at peace.

to make the moment even more powerful, i just realized, is that yesterday was...EARTH DAY. wow. phew. i'm just out of words to express how precious this time was...

so we continued to swim quietly and watching them when we came up for air...my daughter and i held one another and her heart was pounding (i think partially from shivering as it was getting cooler out despite our very warm heated pool and also i think she was excited and maybe nervous as i'd told her that geese can be very protective and may hiss/bite if we got too close). she's such a love.

as we were watching/swimming the geese, after a few minutes they started to make their way over to the pool where we were...they were curious! they slowly waddled over and then stopped when they reached the edge of the pool. they looked, cocked their heads...honked a bit (didn't seem threatening...was more of a curious 'hello' honking) and then one by one they got in with us!!! they swam around as we swam around...neither of us got too close...we respected their space and comfort levels and visa versa. they wound up in the deep end and we stayed in the shallow end...they must have stayed in the pool for a good 10-15 minutes...after that they swam back over to the shallow end where we were and one of them started to swim a tad faster towards us...not fast but still on a mission. not sure what. the goose didn't seem to be feeling funky about us...just maybe more curious or maybe it was a male and felt he needed to let us know he was protecting his girl and we better know it and not make any moves towards them...he wasn't hissing or even honking loudly at us... just little ker-honks and stuff (ha, that reminded me of the town in the catskills my family had our cabin in when i was a pre-adolescent...kerhonkson!!!).

so here we were in ker-honk-ville ;o) and the geese eventually turned and took off in flight from the pool water. wow. another amazing sight. they flew off slowly and peacefully honking and i said to them 'goodbye beauties!!!'. what an absolute treat for us to be w/ them...i hope we were a treat for them to be with too. i will never forget that time...

when we got back into the condo, we looked in our bird book of the northwest (we live in oregon) & saw that there don't seem to be any distinctions to the visible eye between male and female canadian geese. if there are, someone, please, tell us! i'm curious!!!

now i must go rent 'fly away home' from the video store... :O) she was homeschooled, wasn't she? i don't remember that girl going to school...hmmm. she had loads of freedome though...which was way cool. GREAT MOVIE!!!

darn. my dd got up 'late' for school but she still wants to go. why i don't know... not that its an awful terrible place but still...i was kinda hoping she wouldn't want to go. oh well. off we go...but i still think we will not be back as of the last day of school in june.

but looky what i just learned about native american FYI: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/native-american-animal-symbols.html you gotta scroll down to goose. way cool. now i will have to ponder this today and see if it relates to how i've been feeling for SO LONG about truly being an unschooling family... here is one more: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-goose.html in case any of you also have rendevoued w/ geese and want to explore deeper avenues in regards to them.

hmmm. so what might this mean for my kids and i? for me to HONOR their full being, their full true essence? for me to stand by them, protect them and to BE with them as they grow........? instead of handing them off to say, a parrot or a flamingo or a duck or a 'quack' (aka an institution) to 'raise'?! lol yes, pun intended.

aha!:

"Geese are also fiercely protective of their young - often presenting an impressive thrashing display to would-be predators. These scare tactics often work to protect goslings from attack.


Those who have the goose as their animal totem need not worry if they are silly or lazy. This is far from the truth. In actuality, those who are kind, loyal, and brave-hearted attract geese as their totem. Those with the goose totem are the clear communicators, true-blue defenders and compassionate keepers of the community.
Lessons we all can learn from our totem geese include:

Remember your roots - don't forget the people who helped you along the way
Follow your gut - rely on intuition and instinct in order to get where you need to be
Communicate your needs to others - no one can help you if you don't speak out
Protect that which is most valuable, but make sure you have your priorities straight (meaning, be sure you're protecting that which is worth protecting)
"

this MUST be about my daughters 'education'/life of freedom and how mama-bearish i feel when she is restricted or judged by other parents, my mom, her teachers...even myself. yeah. i must work harder on deschooling myself. i know what my passion is for my kids. and i also have decided i want a tattoo of that trinity celtic design that is on the one website about geese. representing so many trios in my life...but esp my children and i...maybe that will be my first tat.

[bLISs]

really, rachel?! oh...yay! my prolific rambling nature has paid off...yay!!! nice to meet you.

[Rachel Tomassone]

What a beautiful moment that must have been to share with your daughter!!! And you told the story so well....... I felt as if I were right there with you!!

[bLISs]

p.s.- KER-HONK! KER-HONK! HEAR ME ROAR!!! (i mean honk)

[bLISs]

:O)

[Bonnie]

That's so amazing! I bet that is something your daughter will never forget :)