HOPE REDEEMED IN THE ROLLING MISTS OF PRESQUI'ILE
Hmmm, a solitary aquatic plant in a rain-water pool in the midst of 1.2 kilometers of mist caressed sand beach. Random chance or divine intervention?
Each May I make a pilgrimage to Presqui'ile Provincial Park. It is the culmination of my spring bird-watching marathon. Bird-watching is a near obsession for me at this time of year and Presqui'ile is the crowning glory to which I passionately look forward.
Presqu'ile is a unique point of land that juts into Lake Ontario. 80% of the park is a nature reserve including seasonally wet meadows, backdunes, marsh environments, woodland and the impressive beach strip. Exhausted migrant birds land here in waves after their nighttime crossing of Lake Ontario.
In particular, Presqu'ile is renowned as a location for shorebirds – various types of sandpipers and plovers ranging from 6 to 20 inches in size – who stop here, during both the spring and fall migration, to feed.
I always save my exploration of the beach for the afternoon after I have scoured Lighthouse Point (Ontario's second oldest operating lighthouse), Calf's Pasture Cove and Jobe's Woods for colourful warblers, vireos, flycatchers, orioles and tanagers.
On this particular day, a rolling mist blankets the beach giving it a haunting majesty. There are only a handful of shorebirds to observe all of which are preoccupied with probing the sand for insects.
I mentally tick off Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover and Dunlin on my spring list – pleased that these shorebirds will put me over the 150 species threshold for the spring.
Scanning for more shorebirds, I notice a splash of green in a rain-water pool near the waterline. I focus my binoculars on it and, to my considerable surprise, discover that it is an aquatic plant. Two large, round green leaves branch off a single stem below the pool's surface.
1.2 kilometers of beach and this is the only plant that took root. A stray seed that fell on fertile sand? In the spiritual state of mind into which I descend at Presqui'ile, this unprecedented occurrence seems to transcend mere chance.
Call me a dreamer if you will. This solitary aquatic plant seems to me to be placed there by divine intervention as a symbol of hope.
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan, floods in Manitoba and Louisiana, the Slave Lake Alberta wildfire, Iceland's volcano eruption, enduring unrest in the middle east… It seems at times that we live in an era of unending turmoil where there is no safe haven.
And yet, hope endures. From the earthquake debris… from the wildfire ashes… from the retreating floodwater… hope rises anew because we have faith that we are not alone.
A solitary aquatic plant in a rain-water pool in the rolling mist of the Presqui'ile beach. A metaphor for hope when all around us seems beyond our control. A reason to give thanks. A reason to believe.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of "Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel" – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael's website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
~ Subscribe to "Michael's Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm" at its' internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the "Subscribe to this Blog: How To" instructions page in the right sidebar. If you're reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.
~ Send comments or questions to michael@mdyetmetaphor.com.
