Just for me

Summer is almost here. I can tell because the dogs are coming back inside with hot fur. Summer means kayaking. Sunday I slipped out all alone to the little lake at Anne Springs Close Greenway. It is my practice lake, my strengthen-my-arms-to-kayak lake. I didn't know if the ongoing ulnar nerve problem would prevent me from kayaking this year. So with the warm sunny day, I decided to find out.

Despite the beautiful day, I was the only boater on the lake. It seemed I was the first boater of the season. The turtles who were sunning themselves in droves on logs sticking out of the water did not plop into the lake when I skimmed by. They just watched me unperturbed, as though I were a giant blue goose. Once boats became a regularity out there, the turtles would hide. For now, the wildlife seemed to ignore me. My arms didn't hurt, but they were not yet kayak-strong. I took a break, and silently glided under an overhanging tree. Something made me look up. There darting among the flowering buds of the tree was a tiny hummingbird. I sat in my boat on the silent lake, bobbing on the ebbs and swells of the water and watched as the hummingbird whirred his impossibly fast wings.

A dog on shore saw me and sounding the alarm, leaped into the water. Despite his owner's pleas, the dog was determined to drag me to shore. Barking the whole way, the large retriever was paddling furiously toward me. The hummingbird disappeared in a flash. I gathered my paddle and headed to the middle of the lake. The dog kept barking and kept coming.

"Dog, you are going to drown. Turn around, puppy," I urged.
The dog chased me till I was halfway across the lake, and then satisfied, and huffing and puffing, he returned to shore.

My pulse slowed. My wrists and elbows did not hurt, the way they do after a day of typing. I would be able to kayak this summer. The sun sparkled off the water. A black and white bird with a large head and long beak skimmed across the lake surface, and horses along the shore paused to drink. A little boy atop one of the horses pointed at me, and his parents glanced my way. A goose dunked his wings and head under water, and then flapped away the droplets rolling off his back. A turtle popped his head out from below the surface of the shimmering water, and looked at me with black innocent round eyes. I wondered why no one else was on the lake, why such a golden mine of treasure was being passed by on this beautiful day. Had it been carved out in heaven just for me?

Isaiah 54:9-10 (NIV)
“To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. [10] Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.


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