Friends Left Behind

My snowbird migration schedule is dictated by seasonal changes established billions of years ago. Fortunately for me, the migrations exchange one paradise for another. Giving up a wonderful Florida waterfront life along the Gulf of Mexico is eagerly replaced by rolling farmlands and Alpine foothills in Bavaria.

The separation from friends is harder. Flying eastward I will think of the heron that perches on the aft piling securing my boat. I watch him as he patiently searches for his next meal.

The eastern end of my migration will reunite me with a friend’s beehive and another friend’s kennel of barking German Shepherds. I will also have the opportunity to share Alpine trails with contented cows grazing their summer pastures.

Bavaria is a managed “wilderness” without the likes of prehistoric-looking alligators, endangered panthers, and invasive pythons. But there are urban wild boars and the occasional lost brown bear wandering across the Alps from Italy.

Email, Skype, Twitter, Medium, USPS, and Facebook will make human separations seamless regardless of distance. But I’ll miss the graceful heron as another migration season ends.