They say “any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.” I have flown enough over the past 10 years to appreciate the sentiment. Watching Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese land can only reinforce the truth of the statement. Snow Geese, and Cranes especially, seem always on the brink of disaster as they land. Of course it complicates matters that they will land in the middle of feeding flock…never at the edge…and never with anything like a clear runway. They always set down in just enough space to stand up in. It is just the way they are made, I assume, since there are certainly easier ways to get on the ground. 🙂

This is a Sports Mode shot from the Canon SX50HS on a morning with snow on the ground and still in the air. ISO 640 @ 1/1250th @ f6.5. Processed in Snapseed and Photo Editor on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.

And for the Sunday Thought: there must, actually, be saints, who, like the Cranes and Geese, always look on the brink of disastor. Landing among their fellows, coming in from celestial flights and realms of glory, they always seem, to the casual eye, to be frantically backpaddling wings, and concentrating on getting their feet down safely. It runs counter to the image of the Saint…the person at peace in perfect knowledge of the divine…but I suspect that we miss seeing a good number of Saints because they have not mastered anything that looks to us like a graceful landing. And that would be sad, since of course, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing…whether we are speaking of airliners, Cranes and Geese, or saints.