I love driving down the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area Causeway and I love looking for birds on the boardwalk, but nothing can compare to the feeling of looking at the lake.

Like a comforting blanket from childhood, I want her to wrap her arms around me. Her vastness isn’t intimidating, but brings a calm of comfort and familiarity.

This particular day I visited her after work. I drove down the causeway at Magee and usually I don’t go to the lake. I am often afraid of going places alone with other cars around; I am always aware of lapses in safety. No one was around, so I walked the sandy path down to the breaker wall hoping to see a Snowy Owl perched waiting for me.

I was taken back by the stillness. There was the slightest ripple in the surface and I noticed it was crossing right in front of me. A leading line took me out across the electric blue and into the horizon. She was calm, still, and beautiful; everything I hope to be.

There was no Snowy, but soon I wasn’t alone. Some photographers must have had the same idea that I had. They came up the path with their giant lenses and a glimmer of hope in their eyes that I had found something good.

We briefly spoke, “no, just looking at the lake.”