In 2014 I experienced my first Christmas in my part of Canada (Quebec) where there was no snow. If it wasn’t the first, then it was the first I was cognizant of. That was pretty weird, but it didn’t really hit me until I was returning from Arnprior, Ontario on New Year’s Day after a visit to my sister’s home. We were driving south east along the Trans Canada between Ottawa and Montreal and I saw Geese flying North. Canada Geese are usually gone at this time of year, and they go South. With Global warming/climate change a real and challenging threat to our existence this got me thinking about how muddled things are and how we have messed with nature, and how now nature was messing with us. This song arrived pretty much in a chunk. No real work involved. I don’t think I even had to erase a word or a line. I am not saying this to brag, but to underline that necessity is the mother of invention. Of course the next year had a ton of snow and I din’t sing the song. Subsequent years have been very different. The norm seems to have gone from copious amounts of snow to variable conditions. This year, as I write, there is rain and freezing rain throughout the region bringing the relevance of this song into focus especially as there seem to be more politicians abusing their privilege to encourage behaviour detrimental to our planet.

They Lost Their Way

I saw them flying North today

A sight for April or for May

But today is New Year’s Day

I guess the geese have lost their way

There was no snow on Christmas Day

No jingle bells no one horse sleigh

No more laughing all the way

Not just the geese have lost their way

It’s not just tradition dying

Canada Geese should not be flying

What a way to start the year

This warming filling me with fear

I saw them flying North today

The lakes are open and the fields are grey

But today is New Year’s Day

I guess the geese have lost their way

They used to know instinctively

When to arrive and when to flee

They’d hit the air and form a  “V”

They knew exactly where to be

It’s not just tradition dying

Canada Geese should not be flying

What a way to start the year

This warming filling me with fear

The patterns of the centuries

All disappear when the lakes don’t freeze

So give me ice and give me snow

And geese who know which way to go