A reflection by Christina Brennan Lee for June 7, 2026.
One morning as winter was ebbing into spring, I was outside heading to my car as a flock of geese in their V-formation went honking by overhead. I stopped, looked, and listened. I was suddenly reminded of the expression calling someone, usually in teasing a child, a silly goose.
Following that I remembered stories about the goose my grandmother had, Gussie, that walked along with her while she was hanging the laundry on the clothesline, working in her garden, or just taking a stroll. It was like a dog for her, my father said. She’d pet it and it would nuzzle her leg, and it was very protective of her. While it would just honk at my dad and his siblings in a warning, it seriously hated my grandfather as if it was jealous. It would attack him by quite viciously honking, hissing, and flapping its wings at him on a regular basis. And their on-the-ground wing-flapping can actually hurt you. Not a goose anyone would call silly. My grandfather eventually had his revenge!
In my own experience when I was running a retreat center at the beach, I had an encounter with two Canada geese who were having quite the argument. They were on the opposite sides of the white line in the street directly in front of the center’s driveway, honking back and forth at each other. I had to stop because I couldn’t turn into the driveway. I moved up slowly and they both turned to honk at me and then back at each other. They would not move. I opened the car door, and they looked up, honked, hissed, flapped their wings, and seemed to say, “come on, get out, we’ll get you!” in a moment of unity. I closed the door. They finally moved on…
So, why do we call geese silly?
Maybe it’s because they are amusingly ungainly in their gait on the ground and certainly noisy in their discussions, not unlike many of us at times. But the morning I saw one particular flock was cold and frosty, clear and sunny and there they were winging across the sky honking encouragement to each other. The V-formation is beautiful in its symmetry and purpose. Interested in more information, I found that the formation is instinctive, normal, and practical. Geese travel together and when one can’t go or falls from the formation because of illness or injury, its partner and another will stay behind to help, to care, to be there, no matter the danger or lack of food, until the downed bird can fly again or dies, regardless of how long it takes. Then the trio or pair join another passing formation. In the grouping, a leader leads for a time flying just above the others to increase lift and reduce the effort of the flock. Then the leader moves to the back of the formation and another leads for a time and moves to the back of the formation, and so on until the destination is reached. Everyone takes a turn to lead. Everyone works together for the good of the entire flock.
Geese also are one species that mate for life. They have a lifespan of 10-25 years and are together constantly. When one partner dies, the other grieves, not unlike we humans, by hanging its head, eating less food, and the mourning can go on for years. To see a single goose in flight is rare and may be the effect of a personal loss. Some eventually find new partners, some do not. In better times, they are also great parents and their offsprings may spend their entire first year with their parents.
Yes, geese are loud, they leave a mess in the grasses, they can be very cranky and even vicious to their perceived enemies across their many varieties. Yet as part of God’s creation, they as with other life forms, offer us life lessons about who we are within ourselves and with each other. So I offer a prayer for Geese, those who are silly and otherwise:
Dear Creator God, help me to be a more reliable part of the flock I’m in, taking my turns to lead and to fall back. Give me extra grace to be very thankful for those who stop to care for me and for me to be even more willing to stay on the ground to help another. I’ve realized that Geese make me look silly in the times when I’m more interested in me than others ~ and in their best times, they are a model of Your vision for the rest of us. Guide us to remember each time we enter into the gifts of sea and sky and forest and deserts, trees and flowers and growing food, sun, rain, and even the winds of our earthly existence, to actively seek the awareness of the lessons of interconnectedness and interdependence that You provide in each and every part of Your Creation [but, seriously, do mosquitoes have some reasonable purpose?]. Guide us to seek the varieties of ways of Your Creation that show us the opportunities to truly love others as we are supposed to love ourselves. Amen.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Every week, Christina Brennan Lee writes the Prayers of the People we use in our worship services on Sundays. She also leads weekday prayer services and serves on the SsAM Vestry. Click here to see her People’s Prayers website.
