5.12.12 Are Your Chains in Place?

Here is a representative for the many other specimens of his kind that I have been encountering with regularity in these nascent days of spring. We had a brief staring contest before he gave up and rejoined his sibs, scuttling around in the wake of their parents and plucking at the dew-basted grass.  By now I have featured my share of Canadian geese on this blog, so will refrain from adding more unless I happen to capture something I consider to be extra special.  Due to the demands of the working life, my island wandering days have been cruelly and sadly curtailed.  So I will just share one more photo, and then venture out on this fine Saturday morning to see what I can see.

During my last walk (yesterday), which included a crossing of the Central Ave. Bridge, I was surprised and pleased to note that the mysterious spirit of the island had changed the sign that, from the southeastern tip of the island, exhorts bridge-crossers to consider a single word, in this most recent case: REFLECT.   Last month, we were exhorted to INSPIRE (see past posts).  As I zoomed in with my camera (this pic is taken from a considerable distance), I noticed what appeared to be a chain holding the sign in place, which seemed to me a new development.  Perhaps the last sign had been carried downriver in the waters which have risen considerably in recent weeks, and its sponsor had been compelled to install restraints so as to ensure his message could resist the forces of nature and endure.

Aren't we always having to engineer our own protective mechanisms against the forces of nature, whether they be climatic in origin or come to threaten our serenity in the form of human nature, whose representatives can be all too unpredictable and insensitive?  We brace and fortify and protect ourselves with ropes, chains, sandbags, fences, and much more, whether literal or figurative, and we get on with the business of living.  What else can we do?  Surrender is not an option.

Life flows on, in and around us—it can strengthen or weaken, create or destroy, inspire or dispirit—given a little time to reflect, we can conceive and implement the measures necessary to ensure we not only survive but thrive.

D.E.S.