Timorous to start
Something of a breach is needed
A breaking through what would keep me back
Scanning the water –
(More like studying)
For what I do and don’t want to see beneath the surface
These over water treks
Not unlike the rest of life:
Full of breathtaking surprises
Textures, colors, sounds, smells
Assault me like so many familiar yet strangely unexpected presents
Paddling ’round each corner,
I don’t know what I’ll find
Sometimes I strain to see, sometimes I’m too distracted to look close enough to see
Much depends on the terrain
(And how much I’m paying attention)
Whether it’s better to paddle hard and forward
Or go backwards a little in order to right myself – or see something I missed
Sometimes a little noise is good for staving off would be threats
Sometimes staying still catalyzes magic
Some spaces call for silence.
Even the creatures mirror so many personalities:
The unaffected cormorants
Flustered and noisy kingfisher
The stoic yet skittish heron
The wary basking turtles
Industrious regal osprey.
But for all these/their appearances,
Their behaviors don’t seem to fit my from-here perceptions
The kingfisher’s small – I’d think him to be more private and fearful:
But vocalizing my disturbance he flies close and brazen.
The heron, larger than all the others, is also one of the shyest:
never allowing me closer than a far off look.
(Looks like he’d be a bully, but not so.)
The turtles…
I don’t know. Not to play favorites, but…
Water, land, slow and quick all at once, elusive yet visible
Fascinating, wonderful
Stone still for minutes that may tick into hours if left undisturbed,
that they’re there at all’s magic to me.
Seems they’d just be content to soak up whatever warmth’d be available
(If left alone they’d just bask in peace.)
Hard shell, soft body, water and land lover both, quiet, present;
Maybe I love them for our commonality?
(Or what I wish was our commonality?)
The carp – whose very name invokes some measure of disdain –
I appreciate your visibility
Even if you do have a bit of an ugly reputation
Size consistently impressive, I don’t have to fear your bite.
What a wonder to enjoy creatures and spaces with creatures.
When my fear defers to wonder
And I give up all this precious control
I’m a guest in all this lovely house
Where so many varied personalities
Eat, rest, fight, bask, propagate, BE.
Fulfilling their role, doing their part, as they are, because they are.
May I be as fully without pretense or falsity myself as these
Adding to the beauty
And though there’s so much I don’t see, may I do well with what I can.
May my personality – my behavior – serve in adding to an already full and rich space,
Fully given to its purpose
…And willing to dwell in wild places
wordskeepmesane 