A day by the lake

I'm a lake person. Perhaps it's due to being a Cancer, my astrological sign. Show me a map, and I will look for the blue patches. I've made a point all my life to live fairly close to the water, and though many times that body of water was the ocean, I prefer to be close to a lake. Oceans are dramatic, turbulent, intimidating and seemingly endless, while lakes are more approachable and speak of tranquility and peace. You can see to the other side (on most lakes) and I like that. It feels safe and enclosed, its own watery world in one neat package.

My home is a stone's throw from Lake Whatcom. Today's air felt almost spring-like as I sat at the water's edge, gazing across, mesmerized by the slow, steady ripples waving back and forth. The dock almost seemed to beckon me to walk out and get in the water. Oh, if only I had a canoe, or small rowboat . . .

One of my favorite songs is a beautiful melody put to Yeats' poem, Lake Isle of Innisfree. This stanza captures today's time at the lake exquisitely:

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.


Get in the water!