A Walk With Faith

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Billy took up my challenge!!!!  Here's his offering.

A Walk with Faith (In My Heart)
by William Wyllie

To Beaver Pond we will stroll. 
I have not been there sing long ago.
     Chilson Beach, a beautiful place.
In my mind I travel through time and space,
      To a time long ago, when I was a lad.
To this same place with brother and sister.
      What a time we had.

Today I walk with Faith.
     And photos I take.
Lots of trees by the pond, grow wild,
    In the past very few, when I was a child.

We walk to a clearing, a boar ramp looks fine.
    I walk to the edge, should I step one more time?
As I get closer to the water, one more step I may go.
     A thick black snake, pops out of a hole.
With a startled surprise, right back I did jump.
    I did it so fast, I heard a loud thump.
In a blink of an eye the snake popped back in its hole.
    And that is when real fast I did stroll.
Faith said with concern, "I would have jumped just the same."
    With a twinkle in her eye, good friends we remain.

Lunch Time Walk

During my hour lunch time, I've been walking. Sometimes I walk in the woods. Since it is Fall, the scenery can be breath-taking. The leaf-peeping season is past, but the scenery can still be beautiful.

The picture on the lower right is a beaver hut. Seeing a beaver in this area is not unusual because I'm walking around Beaver Pond.

Another inhabitant of the marshes is the bird in the top picture. I know you can't make it out. That's the point. God has given her the camouflage. Maybe if you really look close in the middle of the picture--slightly above the center, you'll see a type of heron, called a bittern. She has a long neck and long legs. I like to see the bitterns take off. Their legs swing as they hang down, in take off.

The entire walk reminded me of Mary Oliver's book, Why I Wake Early. This is a book showing God in everything. Here's a sample:

Look and See

This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew
to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back
of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.
The duck, too, was not provoked, but you might say, was
laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over
our house was casually scratching
its stomach of white feathers with one
pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we only look, and see.

I too, feel like I'm looking at God's gift when I look at the mosaic wetland of ponds, marshes, fens, bogs, and wetlands. They are surrounded by woods of red maple, yellow birch, shrubs, alders, and who knows what other variety of herbaceous species. I feel ever so grateful to be alive to see this "festive gift."