Place Entry #4 - Marine Frontiers

Never have I felt more secure and complacent than when I am at the beach.  I don't know who doesn't love the beach, even if one doesn't swim.  It is a frontier: the ocean, a marine wilderness, that meets civilization; homes, hotels, and people.  To be near any water body: stream, river, lake; I feel uninhibited, and incur a sense of any water body being a marine frontier.  There is something substantial that I feel emotionally when I am near or in a natural body of water, such as the ocean, or a stream that may only be knee-deep.  It's a whole other realm of living: it's aquatic, not terrestrial, the creatures must function biologically in completely different ways than those who live on land.  Then those are the creatures who can thrive in both: amphibians, waterfowl, even humans (think people who actually live in their boats, not a bad idea... NO PROPERTY TAXES!).

I was at the local lake by my house yesterday (damn, why didn't I take any pictures?!?!?).  Some of you may be familiar with it,  Brady's Run lake in Beaver County.  I remember learning just recently that you can tell if ice can support your weight for skating or walking if it is pure white, once it begins turning a grey or blue color, don't even think about it, unless you want a polar bear bath.  Yesterday the lake was beginning to turn that blue-grey color.  I was watching the geese walking on the ice, some searching for spaces of open ice where water could be seen, but there wasn't any.  They would just stand there, in their flock, some pruning themselves, some pruning each other.  At times I could hear the ice cracking as it was beginning to slowly melt and recede.  I had never really been at such a large frozen water body before and actually pondered its existence.  I mean the entire lake was a sheet of ice, slowly diminishing ice, but blanketed in ice nonetheless.  I realized the importance of this cycle in nature, as these place blogs are really enticing me to do.  There must be some benefits derived from this freezing affect, that isn't necessarily only human (ice skating).  The geese seemed to still enjoy themselves although I'm sure they would have rather been wading in water, than walking on ice.  But their patience was virtuous, after about an hour or so, the ice began to give way (so glad I got to be there for this!).  Once a crack appeared and water began slowly pouring over the crack onto the top of the ice, the geese in unison began waddling over to it.  Within 20 minutes the ice had broken away so much so that a little open pool was available.  The water may have been cold, but the geese used it to clean themselves.  Some groups would share the little pool, while others would be greedy and chase others off.  I thought, this is the cycle of nature, the warmth, the freezing, these changes in season.
While there, and getting ready to pack up, I thought, I am so glad to have something that the nonhuman world has created that humans can't control!  Nature's cycles come and go, and we can only predict what they will entail, but we cannot control them.  (Although conspiracy theorists hold true to the government changing weather patterns, but who knows??)