The Little Things

Posted 5/14/2002 2:17:41 PM

I have the benefit of working at a location close to a couple parks, and bring my bike along in my car, and often take it midday for a ride. It's been quite a few days since I last rode, and today was absolutely beautiful. It's in the pleasant upper sixty's, a stiff breeze is blowing, and puffy white clouds break up a blue sky. Aaaah! So much nicer that flourescent lights and computer screens.

Just cruising along today, not really working, and decided to stop along a stream. I sat down on some rocks to enjoy one of my favorites sounds: the soft, persistent trickle of water sploshing along the rocks. As I'm sitting there, I notice right in front of me in a little crook in the rocks there's a turtle. Looks like he's invited a friend into his house, as he's trying to coax Mr. Crayfish to come on in. After quite a bit of coaxing, Mr. Crayfish relents and disappears inside.

Mr. Turtle then pokes his head up for some air, and to check out the audience. I stay motionless, and we have a stare-down for a few minutes, but when I move, he pops right down under the water again, and stays put. If I hadn't seen him in the first place, he would have looked just like another rock in the stream, and not even noticed his head and tail.

More little things I noticed, now that I was looking:

I'd been looking at the turtle and the flowing water so long, that when I looked at a sunlit rock next to him, the rock seemed to move slightly - a couple blinks later it was fixed in place like it should be.

The sunlight filtering through the trees made its way down to the water and bounced back up the dance around on the bottoms of the leaves it had just evaded.

A small pool off to the side was getting a good dose of sun, and the minnows inside darted around, enjoying the light. A lone water skipper hovered over them, not making even a ripple.

"When I consider the works of thy hands, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" Ps 8:1-9

All verses in this article