For Mother’s Day today, Barry took Konan and I to the park for a walk. Part of the outing included going down to the river’s edge to see the families of geese that always hang out there.

I always smile at the fact that the local goose is the Canada goose. It’s cool to know that other Canadians, besides myself, are living down here!

But today I noticed something unusual about them:

Every family of Canada geese had not only the two parents and a gaggle of fuzzy little babies… but either a white or grey goose hanging out with the clan.

It looked like the regular geese were being bodyguards — or maybe nannies, or even guardian angels — helping mama goose with her family for Mother’s Day.

I tried to find out if this is a common phenomenon. Both Ducks.ca (Ducks Unlimited) and ItsNature.org talk about how Canada geese mate for life, and both take part in raising the goslings for a year… but I couldn’t find anything about white or grey geese joining the family.

In fact, according to ItsNature.org:

“Once the goslings are hatched they are often seen with the parents. The female usually leads while the other is behind the goslings, and they will react very violently to any approach, whether it be from human or even something so small as a blackbird.”

Hmm… maybe our geese didn’t get the memo, because none of them were being violent or aggressive towards the big white geese.

After some more searching, though, I did find a picture by Bill Allen (shown above) of the same phenomenon in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, and another picture from a guy somewhere in the southern U.S… so they do it all over the continent, despite what “official” goose facts say.

So Happy Mother’s Day to all the geese families out there who choose to buck the trends, break the rules, and do things their own way.

And Happy Mother’s Day to the human moms, too. May you also feel confident in writing your own rules, and maybe even have your own real-life guardian angel to watch over your family.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Today is “May Day”… May 1st.

And every time I think of that, the distress call uttered by pilots and boat captains in trouble pops into my mind.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday!” I hear them calling.

So I started wondering, what it is about May 1st that’s connected somehow with danger?

Turns out… absolutely nothing.

May Day, the holiday, has been around for thousands of years. For the Druids of the British Isles, it was the second-most important day of the year, according to TheHolidaySpot.com. It marked the middle of the year, and was celebrated with cleansing fires — a symbol of the spring sun.

Couples would walk through the smoke for good luck… nothing distressful about that.

Then the Romans came, and they used early May to celebrate Flora, the goddess of flowers, through feasting.

By the Middle Ages, the day had transformed into a festival for children, complete with the maypole: an elaborate ribbon-strewn pole constructed by each village, all attempting to have the highest one (just like the “tallest building in the world” race that continues today).

Kids would take hold of the ribbons and dance merrily around the maypole, weaving them into one complete unit. Again, no distress there!

In contrast to all this celebration, the distress call (which is always uttered three times for clarity: “Mayday, mayday, mayday!”) has nothing to do with May Day.

It comes from the French “m’aider,” which, as any Canadian who has been through the school system can tell you, means simply “help me!”

Now why the heck didn’t I figure that one out on my own?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Today was the big 4-0 for Barry… and since I think the milestone birthdays that end in a “0″ are a big deal, I took him on a special surprise journey.

Our neighbors sat with Konan (the longest time he’s ever been away from us, and he was a perfect little angel the whole time!) and our adventure began.

Barry had no clue until we got there what was going to happen… I let him guess, but he kept thinking it was something else.

The truth? We went to Ashland to the Waterstone Spa, and had a nice lunch (the best salad and sandwich EVER!) followed by a two-person Japanese bath, side-by-side deep tissue massages, and a sauna together.

If you’ve never had the experience of side-by-side massages, or a private sauna, I highly recommend it!

And if you happen to be in Southern Oregon, you can’t go wrong with the Waterstone. Very friendly staff, good massage therapists, privacy, and no extra fee for the “Duet Room”.

What better way to turn 40?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Konan’s first birthday is in just a few months, and apparently it’s tradition for a one-year-old to eat a piece of birthday cake. I asked his pediatrician today at his 9-month check-up, and he confirmed that his kids ate cake on that first birthday too.

I think I’ll make Konan a healthy cake, since I’ve been feeding him homemade baby food instead of store-bought stuff. Maybe a nice carrot or banana cake.

And I’ve got a lot more ideas now about birthday themes, since I just wrote a bunch of articles for eHow on different kids’ birthday cake ideas:

Monkey Birthday Cake Ideas

Tigger & Pooh Birthday Cake Ideas

Webkinz Birthday Cake Ideas

Pirate Ship Birthday Cake Ideas

Luau Birthday Cake Ideas

Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Cake Ideas

I might save these ideas for future birthdays, rather than Konan’s first one, but I’ll figure it out closer to the day…

Keep Unwrapping The Mysteries of Life!