Words from Pep

Breathing in the Dampness

The rhythm of my oars in the humid night air rippled outward as I glided silently close to shore. Leaving the bay, my eye caught hold of three distant fires, camps of other souls seeking solitude and the elusive fusion of self with the Transcendent. I floated through the night, breathing in the dampness, watching the silhouette of trees against the backdrop of our galaxy. An occasional frog launched itself into the black lake as I invaded its zone of comfort. Suddenly an explosion of water! To my port side a young family of ducks was startled from their sleep in the reeds. A baker’s dozen, distraught and thrashing, madly peeping ducklings surrounded my boat until, regrouping in the safety of open lake, they headed for the island. Adrenaline ebbed, my heart slowed and I rowed on. Nearing the outlet, several lily pads brushed my bow. I settled in their midst and waited. Earlier that afternoon a pike had given follow to my bait, a big fellow, twelve-fifteen pounds, forty inches. Quietly I snapped on a floating midget spinner and cast it along the weed edge. A listless retrieve with occasional jerk, set up a tasty surface noise I knew would draw curiosity for twenty yards underwater. As a fingernail moon rose over my stern I continued working the edge, slowly moving toward the outlet. Just before the lake’s surface began sliding downhill, transforming into the Red Cedar River, he hit. Into the darkness he ran pulling my consciousness with him. I thumbed the spool. Kept a taught line. Played the tension enough to tire this gatekeeper of the river. A lethargic current caught hold of my boat drawing us downstream. He battled, wedged himself to the bottom, tried to run again. My bow struck a rock and lazily spun in midstream. He was wearing out. The distance between spent fighter and my boat was narrowing. I teased him to the surface as his eye caught reflection from the stars above. Considering his strength and beauty, bewilderment and will to live, I reached down with my pliers and slipped the barbless hook from his jaw. He and I were free, and together we gazed upward into a starry universe beyond the comprehension of both our minds. Enveloped in the backdrop of eternity, two individual beings had united themselves through the struggle and wonder of existence. We had lost ourselves in the singularity of the one eternal moment and knew the joy of thankfulness. He swam upstream and left me alone as I began pulling at the oars. In my mind I can still taste the dampness of that night here on the fringe of our galaxy.
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ONE WORLD  –  ONE FAMILY OF MAN  –  ONE CREATOR OF ALL