Ten-Finger Exercises

out before dawn

Er, sorry there. We Tivoed CSI (or maybe it was NCIS?) and went downstairs to watch Gray's Anatomy on the little TV by the ironing board. Then we saw about half of the new show that followed it, kind of a corporate male version of Desperate Housewives that promises to be entertaining as well. We taped the second half and went to bed. I can't stay up till 11 and still get Bill's breakfast and lunch made in the morning. I just keep sleeping.

Anyway, back to the canoe ride.

It was the first week of August, and the water in that very cold, deep lake was as warm as it ever would be. The nights had the nip of approaching fall in the ai. The combination of warmer water and cold air gave us this mysterious mist hanging above the water, not so thick that you couldn't see where you were going, but, still, gave the scene a sense of privacy it might not have had otherwise. Intimacy.

The only sounds were of the water as it was parted by the paddle and the drip as the paddle reached forward for another cut. Sometimes there was a creak in the seat as Dean shifted his weight, and a silenced swish as the boat surged forward.

There was no rule about keeping quiet, but it became our custom, to move as silently as we could and not talk until we returned to the dock. Sometimes I paddled too; sometimes I just sat there, gliding through the mist as we navigated around some tree stumps that stuck out of the lake, or beneath willow branches as we headed up the creek. There was a beaver dam under construction, and we occasionally caught a glimpse of those furry little guys who were "as busy as beavers." Often a heron would light on a stump, or a deer might come down to the water's edge to drink. At those times, we would hold our paddles still and watch until something else disturbed the creatures and they left.

Dean kept an eye on his watch, and turned us around in time to see the sun cresting the ridge on the other side of the lake beyond the campground. Then we'd paddle home with slivers of sunshine coloring every ripple and reach the dock by the time it was fully up.

There's a chant in the Book of Common Prayer called the Benedicite, or the Song of Creation. My morning excursions into the mist covered water always made me think of parts of it, and if I could have remembered it all, I would have sung it, right there and then, regardless of the customary quiet. Here's a part of it:

O ye Heavens, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Waters that be above the Firmament, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Sun and Moon, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Stars of Heaven, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Showers and Dew, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Winds of God, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Fire and Heat, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Winter and Summer, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Dews and Frosts, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Frost and Cold, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Ice and Snow, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Nights and Days, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Light and Darkness, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Lightnings and Clouds, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O let the Earth bless the Lord : yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Whales, and all that move in the Waters, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Fowls of the Air, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify him for ever.


And, to answer the questions you left me yesterday, one morning I did fall in the water, trying to get in smoothly and push off. (We went anyway. I put a sweater on and insisted I wasn't cold, and then spent a long time by the fire afterwards warming back up.) And yes, I did fall in love too. And it all turned out okay.