Good Medicine

I headed down to East Medicine Lake Park this morning to walk along the lake. It was a perfectly gorgeous morning and walking beside the lake felt like

Good Medicine

for my soul.

Camera in hand I wandered off the path to examine wildflowers blooming along the way.

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.
― Luther Burbank

And I watched a guy roll up his pants, phone in hand, to wade in the lake while he talked on his phone. He waded into the lake just after I arrived and he was still there phone to his ear when I finished my walk. Perhaps he was working from home today and took his work out to the lake.

There were two women getting ready to go kayaking on the lake. And ducks swam in the shallows dabbling for food in the shallow lake water.

Everywhere I looked I saw simple scenes filled with beauty and grace. There was a feel of late summer in the air. Many leaves were tattered and torn. But still there was beauty everywhere.

So much grace!

It’s easy to miss the beauty and grace if you don’t pay attention. I often look twice at patches of “weeds” and reeds and willows beside the lake. Sometimes I find graceful curves, intriguing shadows or some other bit of beauty hiding in plain sight.

I find it astonishing to see the lushness here even in the midst of the third summer of drought in Minnesota. It’s easy to miss if you are not paying attention.

Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

― Mary Oliver

I hope that you are able to soak up the good medicine of sunshine and beauty in these waning summer days.

May you walk in beauty.