I was driving along the Indian River Lagoon, looking for a place to stop and watch the sun rise, when I spotted a pair of kayakers getting ready to launch from the shore. I almost passed them up, but the further I drove away from them, the more I felt the pull to turn around and "get that shot!' So, back I went. We exchanged pleasant morning greetings, they agreed to let me photograph them paddling into the sunrise, and off they went.
As they quickly and silently paddled out of range, I found a place to sit and enjoy the rest of the sunrise, watching pelicans cruise just above the surface of the water, terns dive headlong into the water, and islands slowly appear from out of the fog.
I was sitting only 50 feet from a major U.S. Highway, but for solitude, it was as good a place as a cabin in the deep north woods of New York. (At least it was at 7:00 a.m. on a Friday morning in January . . .) One half hour of quiet, calm, and thoughtfulness found right smack dab in the middle of somewhere!
It wasn't until the sun had risen completely, the fog had lifted, and I was leaving and backtracking along the shore that I noticed how littered it was, how busy a place this must usually be. But for one 1/2 hour, it had been all mine.
And so my journey begins . . . for the next 12 months, I'll be looking for ways and places to experience moments of solitude in our crowded world. I hope to be as pleasantly surprised by some of them as I was by this place and these men this morning . . .
I mean, c'mon . . . a fishing pole and that hat? I couldn't have hired a better model for this picture!
Postmarked: Rocky Point, FL
No comments:
Post a Comment