The Canada geese were my first treat this morning. I heard them honking and knew they were close. I stood patiently, waiting, until they appeared over the trees, six of them coming in for a landing in our little neighborhood pond. Such a glorious sound as they glide past in a cool clear sky this first day of September. As I walked toward home, I heard more joining them and rejoiced in the way their music affects me. Further down the road, my second gift appeared. I looked up to see seven white pelicans circling overhead, their underbellies reflecting gold from the rising sun, slowly circling silently as the flock glided silently, determining their flight path. Nearly home, a tiny hummingbird suddenly darts out from his crepe myrtle to greet me – suspended in mid air, inches from my face – Oh! Good Morning! I say to him as he proceeds to flit back and forth between me and little tree in a sort of morning greeting ritual. Lastly, I hear a scurrying sound behind me and down the trunk of a small valley oak comes a little grey squirrel, looking this way and that, making sure the path is clear before he darts down for a piece of apple someone’s dropped in the grass.
I think of what I would have missed had I not pried myself from the soft blue covers this morning, if I’d let the sun rise and the day dawn without me. All these glorious creatures would still have been there, circling, darting, their soft feathers carrying them through this September morning, but I would have been the one who lost out. These treasures were there for me because I showed up.
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