Roots, Rocks, No Running!

Teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God, to see;
let your world of beauty capture me.
Praise to you be given, love for you be lived,
life be celebrated, joy you give.

Voices United 299

We were camping on the weekend, a paddle-in to a lovely spot at Depot Lakes north of Kingston. There were nine members of our family, including seven adults and our two grandlads, four and six. Despite fourteen watchful grown-up eyes there were a few tumbles and tears, especially for the four-year-old. After 24 hours he had adjusted to the uneven terrain and walked around saying, "roots, rocks, no running!" Actually, it came out as an adorable "woots, wocks, no wunning." 

We could all delight in the sound of wind in pines and the lapping of water on the shore. We swam often. The six-year-old learned to fish, and was successful, much to his astonishment. We compared notes in the morning about the voices of loons, and owls, and whip-poor-wills in the wee hours. We were also visited by masked marauders, in the form of hungry raccoons who were, fortunately, thwarted by our security measures. 



Our son, Isaac, prepared a brief Sunday morning reflection using the story in John's gospel about Jesus preparing a  shore lunch by Galilee following first a meagre, then hugely successful fishing foray by the disciples. It was a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus, the Christ, who had called them years before. 

While this was lovely, the "cosmic" moment of wonder in Creation came one clear night when Isaac beckoned us to the water's edge to see the Milky Way. We attempted to identify constellations and planets in this dark sky setting. As a garnish, fireflies came close by to augment the spectacular view. That we were doing this with two of our adult children was very meaningful.

With all the dismal news about environmental degradation it was good to be part of the wonder in Creation experienced by our grandchildren and to be child-like in our own experience. It helped that we had four days of perfect end-of-summer weather!