On the Water

A meditative morning paddle on Benzie County's Crystal Lake

- CAROL VOTAW

The beach is awash in cool shadows. Tall white pines and ancient cedars cast giant patterns across the sand. Sunlight dances on the water. Morning is waking.

I slide my kayak into Crystal Lake and a chevron ripple flows behind me. I dip my paddle into the calm and pull. In moments, I leave the shady beach behind and slip into warm sunshine. Shades of blue stretch out before me: a robin’s egg sky, a lake, luminescent and reflective, a summer morning expanding. Gliding over the shallows, I see clouds of minnows. Spooked, they disappear like slippery ghosts, leaving only a maze of unwary snails along the sandy bottom.