I went to Lake Bonny Park for this assignment, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes

As Christians, we have an obligation to take care of the earth. Read a poem like Robert Hass’ makes me sad to think that we have let the world come down to such a low state. At the same time, in his poem we can see how there is still beauty all around us.

One of my favorite lines from the poem says,
“What is to be done with our species? Because we know we’re going to die, to be submitted to that tingling dance of atoms once again, it’s easy for us to feel that our lives are a dream—as this is, in a way, a dream: the flailing rain, the birds, the soaked red backpack of the child, tendrils of wet hair, the windshield wipers, this voice trying to speak across the centuries between us, even the long story of the earth, Boreal forests, mangrove swamps, Tiberian wheatfields in the summer heat on hillsides south of Rome—all of it a dream, and we alive somewhere, somehow outside it, watching.”

Sitting in the park after the rain and just feeling the wind blow and the sun dry up the water reminded me very much of these lines. There was a hat that must have been forgotten by somebody and a broken bottle on side of the path right before the boardwalk. It made me think how we all leave some sort of footprint behind that is going to affect somebody else.

When it was time to do the quiet time I sat out on the end of the boardwalk. I couldn’t help but notice the earth has a sort of rhythm to it. Not to say that there is a deity commonly known as “Mother Earth” but everything still has a flow. You can see how God works just in the way the fish swim in the lake below or how the alligator sitting near the shore on the other side waits for his next meal. There is so much to be found in the beauty of the earth, and it all reflects our beautiful God.

Still?
There is a brisk wind blowing at my back
Making my hair blow into my face;
My feet dangle precariously over the rail;
This place is teeming with life
Even in the middle of this suburbia.

The wind is stilled as I catch my breath,
Looking down I admire the fish swimming below me;
Though the weather is mildly warm
I know the water below me is frigid;
Even still I would like to go for a swim.

The sun is starting to lower in the sky
And thoughts enter my mind about leaving,
But it is so hard to do when I am surrounded
With the very breath of life itself
How could anyone look around and not give praise

The wind picks up again, this time with more authority
I hop off the rail and lay on the wooden planks to look up
At first, with lids closed, I listen to the secret language
Between the water and the waves.
I smirk as I realize the affair I am witnessing.

A few mosquitoes have decided to have an early dinner
So I reluctantly stand to my feet and stretch
I realize there is never a single moment of silence
There is never a time when the world just stops
Be still and watch what you are missing