Reflections

Bill at Sunset on Lake Washington

Lately I have been spending a lot of time kayaking.  I really love it.  On a good day the water is calm and reflective.  We see all sorts of birds and fish, dolphins and manatees.  But even if we don’t see those things, the beauty on that water being reflected back just fills my eyes and my heart.  I can’t get enough of it.  Occasionally I get a nice picture, but usually the camera can’t catch the beauty of 365 degrees of blue sky, white clouds, and green trees being reflected back in 365 degrees of vastness.

A Dolphin Swims with us

The surface of the water is what fascinates me.  How that millimeter of change between water and air both reflects back at us all of the beauty of our world, but also hides a completely different world beneath its shimmering flatness.  We know that other world is there. We believe it in without question because we have seen all of the evidence.  The fish that jump out and go back under, the birds that dive under and come back out carrying a suffering fish in their strong beaks.  The dolphins that cut the surface with their fins and submerge again leaving only a V shaped wake behind them.  Whales that breech in the ocean, jumping high in the air just for the sheer fun of it, but return to their watery home out of necessity.  We can even join in their world for short times using scuba gear and snorkels, but we too must return to our own world soon to survive.

Baby Manatee Face

 This is sort of how I image the line between our world and the worlds of angels, cherubs, elves, fairies, and whatever else might be out there.  The world between the bodies we live in now and whatever form we may take in the next life.  Just a shimmering reflection that hides what we are not allowed to see.   And the evidence is out there that it exists.  Scientists even will tell you that they cannot account for the matter in our universe mathematically by what we can see.  We know by using IR vision and radar that there are ways to see beyond what our eyes tell us.  We have heard stories of aliens, UFOs, miracles and Angels all of our lives, but so many of us choose not to believe.  Why not?  Why can’t those things exist and jump into our world for short times, just as a fish can jump out of the water or a bird can swim?

A Manatee Plays with Kathleen

I am sitting in my kayak with my camera focused on my friend and her perfect reflection in the still water, and just before I can take the picture the water shimmers and clouds up.  I pull down my camera to see what has happened to the reflection and watch as a 1000 pound manatee lifts first her nose to catch that breath of fresh air, and then her body and finally her tail to the surface of the water.  As long and as wide as my friends kayak, but invisible to my eyes just a foot below the surface.  If something that big and that solid can hide from my eyes in just a foot of water, what else might be just beyond my vision????

The Gulf of Mexico