Bird migrations fascinate me. For years my sons and I lived in northern Canada along the Alaska Highway in beautiful country often still gripped by snow in April. However, days lengthened as the sun turned on its axis.
We were in the Central Flyway on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, one of four major North American “highways” birds use to go north and south. Identifiable flocks of birds, ducks, geese, and swans began flying and calling overhead long before spring visibly appeared in the landscape around. They sometimes rested on the still frozen creek and pond below our home as water just began to trickle.
I’d love to find one of the calendars I marked each year naming the dates and sequence of their coming: ducks, geese, and finally noisy trumpeter swans in definite order. It all meant spring was coming, whether we could see it yet or not.
Migration is a powerful concept.
Other creatures do it, too. What is it in spring and fall that stir them to such exploits? Salmon return to home spawning grounds, unerringly finding the exact place where their lives began. Monarch butterflies with tissue-paper thin wings flit thousands of miles to destinations coded inside to survive and birth new generations. Their unquestioning response inspires us. There are “homes” and assigned journeys for each of us to find and complete.
In this fresh season of change, don’t stay static, even if the adventure needs to happen only in your mind and heart while you physically remain in one location. Listen for it. Look for it. And dare.
Extending ourselves in new adventures brings the growth that truly brings us home.
Share any adventure you’re considering. Let us know if and when you take it. God bless!
I love the way God put the homing instinct in both birds, animals, and us.
Absolutely. Some of the best years of my life 🙂