Usually once a week I take Bix to school instead of him riding the bus. He gets to stay home a half hour longer and I get to have interesting conversations with him. Our reward this morning was seeing our first Canadian geese of the season flying in! I’ve been looking for them and some flew over the school while we waited in the line to unload. Bix remarked that they flap their wings a lot and fast. I told him that’s one way to tell they are geese. Or ducks but the geese have the longer necks. As anyone who loves the natural world knows, you never just say oh, look, geese. You always have a conversation about them, a teaching moment. We watched them while we waited and are going to start checking the lake on the way home for sightings. Winter isn’t over but it won’t be long now!
We also talked about while the cold snowy winter can get tiresome, it keeps us from having some of the annoying things we had back in the warmer Texas. Like tarantulas in the house and scorpions in the bed. I told him how a scorpion in the bed had stung me 4 times one night while I slept. I woke up in burning pain. He wanted to know what I did. I told him I killed it with a shoe and took Benadryl. I explained these scorpions won’t kill you unless you have an allergy but they are painful. We also talked about the cold winter keeping other annoying bugs away, such as roaches and the long centipedes we also had in Texas. And we discussed snakes and how Texas had so many poisonous ones. He said he bet you could even find a cobra in Texas! And how the cold winter gives us the beautiful moderate Springs and Summers, and the gorgeous Falls.
We agreed there were pros and cons everywhere. And you have to sometimes deal with some of the parts you maybe like less in order to have the best parts. I hope that plants a seed in his 8 year old mind. That you can settle for the mediocre so you miss the more challenging parts, or you can accept the more challenging parts in order to have the best parts! Like they say, you have to climb the mountain for the best view.
But this morning we were just glad to see the geese return. And with them the sure promise of Spring and all the best that follows! We do love the snow and enjoy it, but this time of year we begin to yearn for it to melt and warmer weather to return. Soon the lakes will be filled with the geese and some will stay until next winter. They’ll have their babies and we’ll watch them swim behind their moms. And the cycle continues, the Spring made more beautiful for having survived the Winter.