Early Mornings

Early mornings, the lake is calm, smooth, a mirror reflecting the shore, tree-lined, and the sky, equally calm, equally smooth, a mirror reflected. And my paddle dips into the water to propel me forward, the bow of my canoe breaking the smoothness, disturbing the sky reflected. My paddling is slow, deliberate, determined, paddle raised, slicing into the water, pushing back, pulling, and holding fast, my canoe sliding forward … and again … slowly over and over … pushing back, pulling, holding fast … the shore slipping by as I glide to the head of the lake, a slow journey undisturbed, quiet, disturbing nothing but the water’s surface, the water’s smoothness restored in my passing.

Smooth paddling, smooth glide, the canoe brushes the water’s surface, raising a soft hush as of beach sand brushed by the oceans’ tides, the water parting, pushing it aside, left and right, water slipping away to aid my passage and, behind in my wake, rejoining, watching, water watching as I move forward, envious, even as I envy the water’s smoothness, water’s calmness in a chaotic human world, nature holding fast, holding firm.

Above me, the sky reflecting, an eagle flies, wings outstretched, caressing the air, a smooth glide, as mine, unbroken, rising and falling, his cry sharp and piercing, calling out, heard only in the quiet of early morning on the lake, and perhaps calling out to me, our journeys to the head of the lake crossing, solitudinous journeys taken alone, our journeys reflected, and reflecting, too, ourselves, he and I alone here, calling out.

And the loons, too, call out unseen, their trills and warbling echoing or echoed by others unseen, their black heads rising to dive again, seen only as a ripple breaking the surface. Their calls stop my paddling, draw me out of my own silence into theirs, theirs and the eagle’s sharp cry, we now a holy trinity united, if for even a brief moment caught in nature, wild and untamed here at the head of the lake, nature united in the three of us – earth and air and water – sharing the silence, sharing our journeys, alone and silent.