Lakeside Reflections

Everyone is packing up their bags, loading up their cars, tidying up, checking to make sure everything is once again the way it was when we had arrived.

I decide to wander down to the dock, make sure we had left nothing behind by the water. I slip out quietly, making my way down to the lake alone. It was hard to take it all in. So many things that I wanted to retain in my memory, the moment, the way I could capture it in words later on, once I had returned home. The closer I came to the lake, the quieter it became. The sounds of my friends preparing to leave fade away to quiet whispers behind me.

Even though we had spent the last half hour packing up and getting ready to leave, it isn’t until I step out onto the dock that I realize the weekend has finally come to an end. I take a seat at the docks edge, with my feet dangling over the edge into the coolness of the late afternoon water, and look out and listen, absorbing everything within the nature that surrounded me. The lake, which only a few hours early had been boisterous with the sounds of children at play, motors from various power boats, and the joking and laughter of my friends, was now silent. The wakes from passing boats had died down and the waters surface was as smooth and still, a mirror of glass. It reflected everything around, making it look like there was an upside down version of our world below the waters surface. I stared down at my reflection in the upside down world. The only ripples were from the calm movements of my feet in the water, fading away as quickly as they had formed. I ran my fingers over the water, breaking up my reflection on its surface.

I sat there at the edge of the dock, my arms wrapped across my chest and listened to the subtle sounds of nature around me. The chirp of a frog behind me, the splash of a fish amongst the lily pads to my left. The boats were all docked and put away, their motors silenced until the coming weekend. The children were being packed into cars, eagerly awaiting their return. Even the sounds of my friends above, loading up their cars, had begun to die away.

After a few minutes Andrew came down to join me. He slipped off his sandals and sat down next to me, letting his feet dangle in the water along side my own. We smiled, silently reminiscing about how we had started our day almost the exact same way, coming down to the waters edge with our orange juice and coffee, while everyone else was still asleep. We had spent the morning watching the lake come alive, and now we watched it in its tranquility. We sat there together looking out over the water, not wanting to go home, not wanting it to be over.

Not too long after the rest of the weekends stragglers found their way onto the dock. We sat, or stood, looking out on the lake, telling stories and sharing memories from the weekend. No one really wanted to leave, but we knew that the time for our departure was closing in on us. Eventually, we’d turn our backs on the water and wander back up the hill, get into our cars, and head out to the highway, until we found ourselves back in the city once more. But for now, even if it was just for one more minute, we admired the beauty of nature around us, trying to lock every sight and sound into memory, to hold onto through the week ahead.