As is often the case, the weather is giving us a beautiful extended autumn in the hills. I sometimes say that October is a busy month in the life of the church, but the truth is that every month is busy. The past couple of weeks, we have been making firewood deliveries on Saturdays, which take a little more time than our usual half-day splitting party, but the general operation of the church, while filled with activities, isn’t significantly more busy than any other time of the year. I had a conversation with one of the neighbors of the church recently, who commented that our parking lot seems to be full during the midweek. I explained some of the things that we do and he commented that we certainly have a lot more going on than is the case with the congregation he attends. I’m not sure that we have more things going on than was the case a decade ago, but we do keep busy.

Despite the full schedule, there are moments to pause and reflect and yesterday was a good day to begin with a paddle. The weather was quite warm, nearly 50 degrees at home, about 10 degrees cooler at the lake. The combination of shortening days and end of Daylight Savings Time put the sunrise at around 6:30 a.m. That meant I could be on the water for sunrise without having to leave home too early and being able to return home in time to tackle the chores that were waiting for me.

I had the lake to myself and there was just a little texture to the water, with a slight breeze. I launched at the north beach and headed out directly across the lake to explore some of the inlets on the south side of the lake. Two huge sections of dock from the North Marina had made their way across the lake. I suspect that they came loose from their moorings during heavy winds that we experienced last week. Fortunately everyone had taken their boats from the water and there were no boats attached to the docks. Still, it must have been a bit dramatic, with water washing over them as they broke loose. Someone will have to retrieve them and there’ll be a bit of diving needed to get them properly anchored once again. But yesterday, they were just interesting shapes in the water that were fun to paddle around as I made my way in my little kayak. I was layered up and plenty warm for the conditions.

There aren’t many ducks left at the lake and those who remain probably had late hatches. Although the chicks look a bit smaller than I expect at this time of the year, they are healthy and flying, so they may not linger much longer. The lake should, however, be rich with food for the ducks and the weather is just fine for a few more days in South Dakota before heading south for the winter.

With the boats out of the lake, I’m sure that there are a few fishermen who are still coming out, but there were none on the lake when I was paddling yesterday. As I made my way across the lake, several fish rose to check out my passing and to remind me that despite regular fishing, there are plenty of fish who escaped being caught. In the early morning light it is hard to see what is beneath the surface of the water. Too much is reflecting off of the surface, but I could imagine a big old Northern or perhaps one of the big rainbows rising the check for food as my boat passed. In general, the time when I was paddling is the best time of day for fishing. By 9 am or so the fish are less active. I’m not much of a fisherman and I haven’t fished Sheridan Lake for many years. I know that serious fishermen keep track of the barometric pressure and times of moonrise and set in predicting fish activity.

The main characters in yesterday’s paddle, however, were the geese. There are Canadian geese that hang around our area in the winter. I think that they are mostly birds that summer farther north while the geese who are here in the summer winter to the south, but I’m not sure. I’ve never gained the ability to identify individual birds with any accuracy. At any rate, yesterday I didn’t notice any geese when launching my boat. Not long into my paddle, however, six birds made a low pass overhead, with lots of honking and squawking. I was just thinking about how a few geese can sound like a lot when I noticed another small group. Soon there were 16 on the water close to the shore and they were really raising a ruckus: splashing and chasing one another. I don’t know what was causing the ruckus, but perhaps there was a bit of food worthy of a fight.

Geese aren’t hard to hear, but it seemed as if the sound of those birds went out to other geese in the area. By the time I returned to the same place after paddling around a bit there must have been at least 30 geese and perhaps more. The splashing and carrying on had settled down a bit but there were still occasional skirmishes between birds with the appropriate amount of noise. They reminded me of some people I know. Their battles are mostly a lot of shouting with occasional gestures, but very little real physical contact. And their noise raises a crowd.

I enjoy the creatures of the lake, but even more inspirational for me is the simple beauty of it all. The lake reflects the hills and sky in a gorgeous way. The few clouds in the sky provided a canvas for all of the pinks, oranges and golds of sunrise. Because of changes in sun angle, the colors of autumn are different from those of summer. Everything seems a bit softer. The day is a bit gentler. Gratitude comes naturally.

As I drove back home, it seemed sad to me that the many cars that were streaming to town carrying people to school and work were filled with people who came so close to such astounding beauty and didn’t have time to sit still and take it in.

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