Thank you for the end of September.
Thank you for light among the stones.
Thank you for a clear blue sky and calm water after the smoke and trouble of summer.
Thank you for flocks of geese passing overhead.
Thank you that many smooth strokes lead to miles of exploration.
Thank you for green and blue depths.
Thank you for the lone cormorant and for the loon calling invisibly from the shadows.
Thank you for little swell waves from yesterday’s wind.
Thank you for proof that fire releases nutrients which awaken a succession of plants that will eventually lead to a new forest.
Thank you for the man in silhouette who reads calmly on his dock next to his wet and happy dog.
Thank you for a campground that is quiet after many people have gone home.
Thank you for a faint, waning moon in the west that drifts down like a white feather.
Thank you for how the lake stores summer’s heat and slowly releases it through the fall, a safer season to paddle than spring.
Thank you for time, for life after responsibility, for freedom to go.
Thank you for oatmeal raisin cookies on the counter when I return.
ospreypaddler 
Appreciate You and Your writing🙏🌺
Sent from my iPhone
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Gale, I did not know that you had found a way to my blog. Thanks for sharing this amazing day with me.
Hi Gary. What a lovely tribute. “Thank you for light among the stones” is perfect in simplicity and evocative beauty. Happy that you have been once again back in your element. Best, Babsje
Babsje, thank you for your always thoughtful comments.
You’re welcome, Gary. I bet those oatmeal raisin cookies on the counter at the end of your paddle were nourishing just as your other points of gratitude nurtured your eyes and spirit, too.
Thank you, Gary, for these wonderfully rich particulars, both serious and lighthearted, these beautiful details connecting the small-scale with the grand. Thank you for bringing us into your gratitude and your time on the lake. Thank you for these bright images in your photographs and words.
Gary – yes, with maturity comes appreciation for not so simple beauty. We can enjoy this.
Yes! We are blessed with the beauty of our earth….it’s ours to enjoy and keep and healthy
Your meditation full of gratitude and peace is so very welcome in this season of the autumnal equinox. Thank you, Gary.
Thanks, Sue. I knew I had been given an extraordinary day to enjoy, and therefore wanted others to participate in what I had been given.
What a perfect poem cherishing all we have and the passing of the seasons. I am also so envious of the water clarity you have, a rarity in our part of the country.