blue heron zazen (haibun)

 
For the first time in a month I felt up to visiting Callaghan's Rapids Conservation Area, my favourite nature escape. I took the bandage off my second dog bite wound this week, and although both wounds still look angry, at least they have finally healed enough to remove their dressings. The scars will look interesting next summer when I'm able to wade again in the Crowe River. This has been a lost summer for enjoying my usual relaxing days at Callaghan's.

Friend Marc has been busy, as usual, building cement forms in the parking lot. Apparently determined vandals have managed to knock some of the huge boulders off the protective barriers he and Doug have built around the lot's perimeter to keep illegal ATVers and dirt bikers from despoiling the park. Later on my hike I saw more of Marc and Doug's efforts at building barriers on the islands crossed by the old CNR railroad bridges. They have spent thousands of volunteer hours trying to protect the area's habitats, and have mostly succeeded.

I decided to hike on the Trans-Canada Trail to the side trail which crosses into Riverside Pines Estates. Somehow I missed the entrance, and walked most of the way to the long swamp. Finally I turned back to look for the entrance, which I found on a 15 minute return walk. When I reached the bridges I sat on one of the cement buttresses to relax after two hours of walking. Purple asters were in bloom everywhere, and the air had the cool freshness of early fall. I looked upstream and spied a blue heron silently poised in the marsh grass, patiently waiting for dinner to swim along. I felt a touch of embarrassment seeing his perfect stillness and patience. Far more zazen meditation posture than my own sloppy slouching and random thoughts.

blue heron
meditating
dinner