Observer

Cater’s Lake
Anderson, South Carolina


Unseen, I watched you today; not as voyeur, rather as student. You were building childhood, magic, for that little girl you had with you. I thought of Daniel Quinn’s books on community building. You must have read his books. I saw you doing exactly what he said we should do. Every child deserves the full and complete positive attention of one adult. Your child was getting the full loving consideration of an adult. Another adult, a distance learner across the lake, was giving you his full concentration, learning, wondering what it would have been like to have received this attention himself. Your little girl was getting things that technology could never deliver on. You must have also read the works of Thich Nhat Hahn and Eckhart Tolle as well. You were practicing the art of living in the present, in the now. Suddenly I wasn’t worrying about where I need to be or what I needed to be doing.

At your picnic table you gently placed your daughter on the bench, unfolded a napkin before her, and then set out a meal of childhood delights from a fast food bag. Perhaps one of the fastest ways to build a happy contented child is to occasionally feed them their favorite treats from a white bag while seated on the shores of a duck-filled lake, paying attention. Between bites I saw you stand your little one up on the bench and point out the assorted shore birds to her, perhaps even a butterfly in the early morning rays of sunlight filtering down through the mist. I saw a mother carefully building memories into her life that will stand her in good stead in the distant days of her far-off future when she will need them. Unwittingly, this same mother was building important lessons into the present day of the cloudy life of an observer unseen at another table on the far side of her experience.

Each morning I ride my bike to try and get a healthy start to my day, attempting to find a small updraft that can give me a bit of even lift to my uncertain wings. A small lake near my house is about halfway along my route and often I will sit at one of the picnic tables to meditate. So it was today that from my table a teacher presented herself today on the opposite side of the rippling waters. It is but 8 AM and I have already been well instructed in what matters most. Give away that which we value most greatly and it will come back to us. On the way home one of my favorite neighborhood dogs came out to great me.

Today I learned that the world is a safe and generous place, if I look for it to be.