Friday, February 06, 2004

A Sacred Place

Today was meant to be a swimming day but we just got a spectacular dump of snow last night, so I got out the skinny skis and went to a state park nearby. Totally amazing. I skied for an hour through untouched snow and only saw another person back in the parking lot as I was loading up to leave. I went down along the river where the quiet was only broken by the sound of water and birds. I saw a large flock of geese, ducks, a cardinal, a red-crested woodpecker, half a dozen red tailed hawks and a bald eagle. When I saw the eagle I'd just come around a bend above the river and he flew out across the water in front of me, not flapping at all, just soaring out of the trees. Everything about the scene was breathtaking and sacred. I felt as if I should kneel, and I remembered a hymn I haven't sung in years:
"For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love that from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise."

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