Celebrate! Life & Times at Loon Lake – A Return to Simple this Summer
Copyright ©2018, ElizaBeth Coira

There’s nothing like walking in the warm summer sun, through towering mountains and blooming fields to set the heart right. Welcome to summer at long last; and a simpler, easier, freer way of life! Don’t you just love to wander the shores, meadows, and forests surrounding our lovely little watering hole; bidding good day to all the tall, cheerful old souls; as well as to quacking, new little fuzzy ones, splashing gingerly about the shoreline. What a joy to admire the great beauty and blossoming of Mother Nature’s heart in the season of summer. Surely this truly exquisite masterpiece we live in is a labor of…Love…not just logic or reason…though the head and the hand certainly help put the will of the heart into motion. But Mother Nature could never be confined, nor defined by the simple terms of human workings. No—twinkling stars, sparkling stones, all gifts of creation indicate a vastness much greater than our own human existence.

What does summer’s beauty mean to you? Perhaps the peaceful shelter of friendship and laughter? Or the squeaky barks of tiny brown tree squirrels? The high pitched chirps from way up high of an osprey preparing for fishing? Maybe you think of curious little kiddos spying on a spry Mr. Robin Redbreast?  Or the swooshing acrobatics of swallows on parade skimming the lake for dinner? Do you welcome the blessings of occasional rain showers? Give thanks for the soothing shade of trees? Wrap yourself in the warmth of sunshine kisses? Giggle at the nibble of a fish at your foot, before the shimmering little stunners shimmy away? Have you stopped to sniff the wild of white daisies? Danced in the magic of floating cottonwood seeds? Suspended belief, all while peeking under the umbrellas of spritely, tiny mushrooms?

Thank goodness we are able to be, exist, breathe in and out, and witness such beauty as Loon Lake in the summer. Thank goodness we can wander Mother Nature’s hills and forests, stretch out our arms in her meadows in bloom. Thank goodness we can walk her good green paths, all while illumined by a bright blue sky. Thank goodness we can skip, swing, and twirl to the sounds of birdsong and wind through the pines.

What would we do if we couldn’t see and feel green…breathe in the blue…rest in the brown? What would we do without this beautiful planet…Mother Nature’s generous gifts that cost us nothing?

May we never know…and ever care… for this exquisite playground we’ve been granted, gifted, entrusted. May the gifts of Mother Nature’s Love show us the way beyond the trappings of ego and prisons of greed. May this summer bring you peace, warmth, kindness, renewal, and a gentle reminder… that the simple shift within to Love, Awareness, Gratitude…all open the way to a bright new world.

ElizaBeth Coira is a writer, poet, consultant, facilitator, and eastern Washington neighbor. You can enjoy more of her poetry and photography at ElizaBethCoira.com or HomeGrownSojourner.com.