On rediscovering home ecologies

I never fully appreciated the subtle and breathtaking beauty of these landscapes when I was growing up in them.

Loon Lake.

The drive out is dull and long, on two-lane roads rigidly straight and behind drivers increasingly committed, as we pushed deeper into the agricultural hinterlands between Minneapolis and the Arrowhead, to proceed further and further below posted speed limits. It seems like some sort of enforced slowdown, like they could sense by the out-of-state plates on the rental car that we're from some rushed and frantic big city and they won't have us behaving like that in these parts.

Good transitional preparation, I suppose, for the languid pace that the wise quickly adopt after turning up for a week at a family cabin.

The first job on arrival, if you're a guest, is really the only task: sit on the dock and stare at the lake. This is perfection in its utter simplicity and needs no further embellishment.

But embellish I will, for the real delight is in the abundant details.

Observe the glassy water, undisturbed by wakes for now, though many boats will fill the lake with joyful noise and choppy water as the day progresses into afternoon.

Detect the low hum of the single fishing boat which trawls slowly near the opposite shore. Snippets of the hushed conversation of the men aboard float across the lake and into your ears, which are now adjusting to the enormous soundscape around you, so wide-open in its dimensions and so richly, quietly sonorous.

Re-tune your ears to the birdsong. So much birdsong. Every chirp and melody is distinct, a thousand little solos trilling and tweeting, each audible in crisp clarity without the overamplified and clamorous percussion of a noisy world to drown them out.

Try and catch splashes of fish, turtles, and muskrats in the shallow near-shore water. You'll hear them, but you can't turn your head quick enough to see them.

Follow dragonflies flitting just above the crystalline surface of the gently rippling lake as they hunt for breakfast.

Let the sunshine gently warm your back and cup of coffee you cradle in your hands give lift to your soul.

The brilliant light dances on every leaf of every tree that surrounds this bay in glorious ensemble.

Flocks of geese soar in efficient formation, honking wildly about their excitement to be flying back to the magnificent lands of water, woods, and sky. Another season back home for them, too.

I never fully appreciated the subtle and breathtaking beauty of these landscapes when I was growing up in them. It took leaving to find myself in other lands. Only now am I understanding these places, these ecologies, and what they mean.