Spiritual Lessons From Nature Part IX: Mutuality

I never liked geese much growing up.

In my childhood, my dad kept a small group of them in the coop next to our hen house, and whenever I went down the small hill from our house to see if there were any chicken eggs to bring inside, the geese who lived just next door would scare me with their intimidatingly large bird bodies (I was a bit of a peanut) and brash, vulgar honks.

But this past summer, while on a 5-day silent meditation retreat, I learned a little bit more about geese that I found quite intriguing.

Though I can't remember now how the retreat teacher weaved this in, during one of their many dharma talks, they shared with us how geese engage in mutuality as a group in such a way that has an essence of interconnection, inclusivity and integrity.

For example, when geese fly together in a V formation, the formation itself allows each goose to gain additional lift and reduce air resistance for the goose flying behind it. Thereby, any goose who drops out of the V formation very quickly learns that flying alone requires more effort and energy to fly.

Also, geese rotate leadership positions. 

When the goose flying at the front of the V formation grows tired, it will move to the back of the formation where there is less air resistance.  This allows the tired goose to be carried in part by the larger group while its energy is depleted, and another goose will take the lead for a time.

But my favorite goose factoid of all, was this one...

When one goose drops out of formation because it has become ill or injured, two other geese will also leave the V formation to act as companions and protectors for the weakened goose. The two geese will remain with the incapacitated goose until it is able to fly again or it dies.

I have to say, ever since I learned these little golden nuggets about the interconnection, inclusivity and integrity of geese, I now can't look at them in quite the same way when they fly overhead my house.

It also has forever changed the way I read American poet Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese."

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Depending on where you live in the world, perhaps the next time you spot a group of birds flying in V formation (or any other), you may take a moment to acknowledge the elegance of nature's illustration of mutuality.