The days are getting shorter.
The shadows are getting longer.
The blooms on the clematis are fading.
Geese gather overhead in sinuous lines
that shift
and transform
as they travel southward.
The gatherings caught my attention last week,
as I watched the giant sky-canvas
bordered at the bottom by the tree-topped fence in my yard.
Small gatherings of geese,
all travelling in different directions.
Then,
on Wednesday,
in the east above the intersection where I placed a shiny dime for Mercury,
birds using the air currents like escalators,
circling around
and around
and around,
exiting at higher altitudes
like couriers zipping through traffic
so messages arrive.
First a swarm of geese, not at all the shape I expected.
They circled in the current
higher
and higher,
until they gracefully eased out
and unwound
slowly
into three familiar Vs.
Then came the hawks.
This is the first time I’ve seen Cooper’s Hawks in Edmonton.
Suddenly,
here they are.
The first one was perched on a branch right above me as I stood on the sidewalk.
That same afternoon
two different hawks circled slowly,
as if they waited for me to look up
before they took off on a wind current.
It looked
to me
like the second one tipped its wing at me
as it twirled lazily upwards.
Since then, I have noticed them several times,
spiraling above the trees.
Tonight
a long undulating line of geese flies directly overhead.
They fly so low I hear them calling softly back and forth,
checking in with one another
as they stretch their wings
and prepare for the long flight south.
The line pulses and shifts.
It breaks up into several smaller lines,
which sometimes shift into lopsided Vs
before changing shape again.
It looks like they know where they need to go
but are trying to figure out how they will travel there together,
By the time they fade in the distance
they have broken up
into several
smaller groups,
each one
starting to settle into its own variation of a V.
Each of us carries an inner Wise Woman
whose voice
is quiet
as the geese calling softly overhead.
Sometimes
she simply needs
a welcoming space
to be heard again.
If you are feeling your own Wise Woman asking to be heard as you navigate the transition to Wise Womanhood, we will be gathering in circle for the Sagescence Ceremony on September 26 in Edmonton. You are always welcome.
