Lessons In Love From Canada Geese

I am Canadian, and here we have Canadian geese, and yes, they fly south for the winter. Canada geese also mate for life. They are masters at perfect flight formation as they take turns in perfect tandem, with one brave soul piercing the air of the V formation at the front so the rest of them can take turns and are not worn out. Sounds like perfect teamwork to me. So what can we learn about love from Canada geese?

Lesson #1: Soul Mates are Real
If geese can have a partner and mate for life, then why can’t people?

Lesson #2: Soul Mates Bring out the Best in Each Other

Soul mates complement each other, and when one is weak, the other is strong. In fact, soul mates are so synchronized that they work together as a team toward higher purposes, trading off passes, supporting each other and serving as the wind beneath each other’s wings.

Lesson #3: Soul Mates Work as a Team

Soul mates, much like Canada geese, work off the same flight plan, read off the same emotional page of life and charter a course together toward new adventures. In fact, a flock of geese can travel as far as 650–1,000 miles per day. Imagine if we had a partner and, as a team, what we could accomplish in life! Also, both the male and female geese raise and protect their young together.

Lesson #4: Soul Mates Find Balance

Even Canada geese stop and take breaks from their V flight formation to rest on ponds along the way. They have a free-flow of “doing” as well as accomplishing travel goals, and “being” by just resting along the way.

Lesson #5: Soul Mates are Irreplaceable to Each Other

Canada geese choose a “life” mate and not a “here for now” mate. There is a sense of being irreplaceable to each other. For us as people to be special in each other’s lives, we have to be “one-of-a-kind” or irreplaceable. This means to love and hold each other at the highest level of value. We accomplish this task by “seeing each other.” We see the value and take time to be intentional as well as to connect with each other.

If Canada geese can mate for life, then why do we live in a society with a more-than-50 percent divorce rate, where the concept of soul mates seems like an illusion or ideal? Below are some of my guesses as to why we as people struggle with love.

1) We can be so invested in ego that we forget to support each other and want to be right all the time.
2) We don’t work through issues to resolution, and instead stop communicating around our “flight plan.”
3) We don’t function as a team, and instead work at cross-purposes, caught in power struggles around who will get their way.
4) We let fear take over our lives.
5) We wish for more and don’t appreciate what we have.
6) We forget the promises of today and lose ourselves in other priorities.
7) We stop being intentional in our relationships and forget what it means to be a team.
8) We live in a world of reminding ourselves “what our partner is not” instead of appreciating them for “who they are.”
9) We want bigger and better in this world, and focus on the next relationship that will make us happy without focusing on the relationship that needs work now.
10) We fail to have an agreed-upon flight plan that lets us know where we are going ahead of time.

Oh, to be in love and be Canadian geese going south for the winter!