Reflections on a Few Days at Rainy Lake

I love water, and I grew up in the upper Midwest, so I love the ocean but especially lakes.  My favorite is Rainy Lake, just east of International Falls, MN.  Due to the number of islands, bays, rivers and rivulets, there are more miles of shoreline than the state of Florida.  In addition, the earth's crust, represented by Ely green, a limestone formation, comes to the surface here, and evergreens and northern deciduous trees line the shore.  That is the geography, which informs my "head," but being here, looking east over the lake from a sixty-five acre island owned by beloved friends, nurtures my soul.  We in The Episcopal Church, have been engaged in ministry with Native Americans for 150 years, so yesterday, when we rounded the curve into the bay where my friends Harry and Ginny have their house, I watched a bald eagle circling repeatedly over the bay.  I believe that is a powerful sign of blessing, and this visit, like those before it, is full of blessing.  The mosquitos are abundant, to be truthful, yet we are three days into a wonderful dragonfly hatch, and they are so abundant that I am well aware that if they were airplanes, an air traffic controller would have a heart attack!

When I am here, whether the weather is pleasant or not, my soul finds solace, my hope is renewed, and I recognize once again that the One I name as Holy is the giver of all this splendor.  Do problems abound personally and for human society?  Yes.  Does life continue to present challenges to my faith, to my ability to have hope for human society?  Of course.  Yet when I am here, I cannot imagine that the God Who Is, Who created the universe and is present in and to the individual human soul, longs for anything less than our health, our common good, our ability to have hope, our capacity to live in love with one another no matter how much we may disagree and no matter how vehemently.  I believe this God longs for us to be whole, to be one.  I love and long for our growing relationship with "mother" earth, and it is my sense that it is not my place to become strident in pleading for others to be more responsible.  I can only sing the song of what I love, what nurtures and fulfills me, and pray that others may find their "spot" on this earth which nurtures them, which helps them to live in love with the creation beyond living in what is merely a dutiful response to it.

If you have never been to Rainy Lake, and if you have not yet found your "spot," try this one.  If you already have your own, treasure it and thank God for it!