To the End
My wife took Labor Day weekend a little too literally
this year, so I spent it staining the pergola on the patio. And yes, I had to agree with her at the end
that it did need a fresh coat of stain and it looks much better now. Since we are both retired we had the option
of making it a four-day weekend, and since the weather forecast for Tuesday was
one last day of this near-perfect late summer weather we’ve been blessed with
this week, we decided it was time for a fun day.
We did get around to the fun eventually. But first, we started the day as we do most weekdays and
got a morning workout in at the Y. We
plotted our kayaking adventure over breakfast and coffee. Of course, life has its not-so-perfect
timing, so when I finished shaving and pushed the knob down to drain the sink,
the water just stayed there uncooperatively.
After some investigation I determined that little plastic piece that
makes the drain open and close broke off.
I didn’t want to waste any more time than necessary, so I robbed the
piece from the upstairs bathroom sink that gets used very infrequently, and got our
master bathroom sink operational again.
We had decided to paddle around Cauldron Falls. It’s a large lake, and there are no cottages around
it, so it feels remote and peaceful. We
were the only vehicle at the boat landing as we launched.
Once we were on the water, it became apparent that
autumn is already at work. All the trees
on the surrounding shoreline had that fading green, in-the-process-of-turning-color look to them. It’s not officially
autumn for three more weeks yet, but it gave us the first sense of the day that
we were using this summer up to the end.
It took us nearly an hour of paddling east to
encounter another boat. It was two
fishermen tossing big plugs for muskies.
The big predator fish kind of get finicky during the hot summer months,
but as the weather begins to cool they begin to get more aggressive. The best time to fish muskies is when you
can, but these two probably knew it would be better fishing toward the end of the fishing
season.
We watched a pair of eagles soaring effortlessly. At first it looked like they would fly towards us,
but first one, and then the other began to spiral upwards on the lifting thermals
until they were mere specks in the sky.
They vanished from our sight to the north. It was as if they were intending to use the
entire sky until the very end.
We rounded a point and entered a new bay when a loon
popped up about fifty yards to the south.
He appeared to be alone. These
birds are a bit of a mystery. The adults
will be leaving any day now; the male and female fly out separately. The young of the year stay on, putting on weight
and muscle to help them migrate a couple thousand miles to the southeast. How do these youngsters know when and where
to migrate since they obviously have not ever done so before? It will be the heavy frost of late September
and October that likely tells them when.
Maybe it’s the Lord who tells them where. Either way, they will be among the last of
the migrating birds to leave as they stay until the end.
The sky began the day as clear and blue, but many
clouds dotted the sky even as we launched.
By the time we reached the far shore and turned back the clouds had grown
much thicker and the bottoms of the clouds were brushed steel gray. We had used up the last patches of blue to
the end.
Michelle and I were happy to get back to the boat
landing. Our Fitbits recorded the paddle
at 2 hours and 16 minutes. For this day
it was enough; it felt like a good time to come to the end.
We stopped by a favorite Northwoods restaurant for
dinner. They have a beautiful outdoor
dining area that looks out over a lake.
It was calm and all looked ready for nightfall. The lake agreed that this day had reached its time of quiet pause was about at
its end.
About halfway home we could see darker, more
threatening clouds in the north.
Michelle pulled up the weather radar on her phone. It showed a large area of showers spreading
southeast. The dry spell we have enjoyed
the last couple of weeks is apparently at its end.
As I pulled in our driveway we surprised the doe and
twin fawns that have frequented our yard this summer. Their undisputed ownership of our plants came
to a quick, unexpected end for them.
By the time I got the kayaks put away, walked out to road
to check the mailbox, and pulled my truck into the garage I had used up the
last of the twilight. I stood there for
a moment to breath it all in before turning to go in the house. I felt satisfied and blessed. We had lived this day well, right up to the
end.
“He loved his own in the world and he loved them to
the end.” John 13:1
His Peace <><
Deacon Dan
Photo by Sies Kranen on Unsplash
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