A GENTLE REMINDER

TODAY: Revitalize your sense of wonder. For Rachel Carson, that meant the sensitivity of children: “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us, that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring is dimmed and even lost as we reach adulthood.” Her prayer for every child is a “sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”

It is the day before Thanksgiving. Instead of my usual food planning and cooking, I am with my family on the first day of an unusual vacation. We had all agreed that five days of backcountry (translation: “very primitive”) canoeing on the west coast of the Florida Everglades would be an interesting adventure and that this was the best time.

The Gulf of Mexico stretches out to the south and west, and we are paddling due west. It is amazingly calm; like a lake instead of the familiar East Coast ocean surf. The blending of sky and water is broken only by an occasional green island (key). Birds abound, and I wish I could identify them. The only ones I know, pelicans, are graceful in flight. We notice that each flock seems to be following the same path. Coming due south over the land to our right, and then as they get over the water, wheeling together to head due east. As they travel east, some flocks stay in formation and continue to stay quite high overhead. Other kinds of birds break formation, drop and just skim over the water. I wonder how they know just what is too low – their wings almost touching the water.

One flock that was low, rather than heading for our side, contin- ues to come right at us. What do we do now? They are in our path, and we can’t move fast enough. Or — are we in their path? Just as the lead bird reaches the front of the canoe, they split, and we are surrounded, then quickly left behind by the fast-moving flock. I am spellbound. I feel so small on this big expanse of water. God Is In Charge! When I am immersed in His creation and out of the man-made environment, I feel so inadequate. Like the psalmist, I think, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them.” Truly our God is an awesome God.

When you read this, it will be April Fool’s Day. In a way, I think God was saying, “You think you’re in control? April Fools” to me on our trip. I’m so used to keeping both my personal life and work life in order, that I forget how little control I really have. Yet on that day, all seemed to be at one, and I felt like an intruder not a “ruler.” There have been quite a few times in my life the past five years where God has shown me how little control I have; and they have been hard times. You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now. I guess when life gets some stability, I forget too quickly and fall back into old patterns. Thank God that this reminder was the gentlest one He has sent me.

— Barbara Carter

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist