Together,
We walk across the green lawn leading down to the water's edge.
Out in front of us is a wooden dock and beyond it a wide river cobalt blue in color.
Step aboard one of the sailboats tethered to the dock,
Feel the craft heel over slightly as each person comes aboard.
The engine revs and we begin to move out into the channel,
Carefully making our way between the rows of boats tethered to buoys,
Their bows pointing upstream.
As the river empties into a vast lake where the far horizon is hidden in fog and shadow we raise our sails.
They crackle as they fill with wind.
Soon afterward we turn off the engine and in the quiet we gaze about and we breathe in and breathe out.
We pass the line of froth,
The demarcation line where the river ends and the lake begins.
As we move farther out into the lake itself we gaze over the stern the back of the boat and watch the buildings and rows of trees shrink to lines of black and brown and green.
Far away past a field of freshly cut hay a red barn becomes a blur of red.
The sails continue to fill with the strengthening breeze and we pull in on the lines with the creek of pressure and the rigging high above the deck.
Gazing out in front of us the morning sun begins to break through the fog and once again we take a few moments to breathe in,
Breathe out.
Soon we can glimpse the far shore but it's time for us to return.
As we come about into the wind the sails flap and protest until we pull them in tightly on the other side of the craft.
Heading back toward shore now the trees,
Buildings and barn come back in the focus and we smile as if they were old friends.
At the entrance to the harbor we drop the sails and once again rev the engine.
We zigzag slowly through the moored boats until we approach the dock where we began softly moving alongside it where we can tie up.
We step off the boat and once again begin to walk back across the emerald green lawn.
But we stop and take a look back and one last time we breathe in,
Breathe out.
Allowing this simple practice to center us as we remember our trip together.
