Serenity

A few days ago a friend posted pictures on facebook of Walden Pond.  My immediate response was N-V.  I just wanted to run to Walden Pond, which of course is along ways from Kansas, sit, relax, be calm and pretend that the world was safe and beautiful for everyone.  Shortly after I had made that comment online, I took a deep breath and another and another, until my head cleared and my heart slowed down.  Ironically, it's the rush I've created myself that so frustrates me.

Then I stepped outback with Lucy and opened my eyes to the beauty and the colors of my own world.  I spent several days unwinding and practicing prayer while in touch with nature.  One day I awoke early to workout and with a plan to take pictures of the colorful contrast to be found in fall.  We headed out to Prairie Dunes before the course became flooded with people.  Lucy zoomed around a few hills while I practiced my saunter and turtle crawl.  Everywhere around me I found serenity, color, peace, beauty, and all thanks to God in Nature's hand.

If it hadn't been for the early morning sunshine and reflections on the water I might have missed Walden's Pond.  Sadly, we call it the pond on number eleven, not too creative but functional.  I think there is already a Walden II Pond so I'll have to come up with something new.  There I stood, I had come to the pond and found the moment of serenity.  My breath was calm, my heart pounded with excitement like I'd discovered a new land a new place, a new peace.  So I sat.  I sat on the dew touched grasses; I watched a few ripples as turtles crawled into the water; I watched the birds overhead zoom, flitter, and float like the leaves in the air.  I listened to the stillness and heard the grasses rustle, the black bird caw, a woodpecker knocking, the UBB's (unidentified brown birds) chirping at one another, a lone meadowlark in the field behind me singing.  No longer will envy fill my heart when I see what others have, I just need to reflect, to see, to gather from my surroundings, to know I have all I need right here in the middle of Kansas.