THE BUTTON

My eyes became fixed on a small round shape, with four holes, nestled atop the sand and pebbles on the dried up shoreline.  Stained from years of immersion, worn by the waves of time, a simple button off someone's shirt or dress revealed itself to me as I slowly walked toward the dam this morning.  A tiny button, that could have been here for many years, reminded me of how things change, and yet, how they stay the same... comforting thoughts.

Today I'm journalling on the Point at Sherwood Lake in southern Clark County, Wisconsin.  As I ponder about all the changes that will soon be taking place here, with repairs to the dam and dike this summer, I'm excited to know these changes will give this dried up lake a new beginning and kids will once again make great memories here, just like I did.

This sunny, breezy, blue-sky day is worth remembering.  I can hear red-winged black birds, kill deer, and several other song birds singing all around me.  Behind me, in the shallow water and what's left of the old swimming hole, a dozen geese or more are soaking up the warm May sunshine.

On my short walk to the Point, I watched a small muskrat swim in the muddy water near the cracked and rickety old dam.  A large brown snake slithered quickly under the piled up rocks on the former shoreline when it saw me approaching and a snapping turtle swam out toward the Hay Creek channel lifting it's head briefly out of the murky water.  Wildlife abounds, even in a dry lake bed, if you open up your eyes and look hard!

 

As I sit here in the shade on the west edge of the Point, the grasses now growing across what was once a lake full of water, wave peacefully to and fro in the wind, while clumps of fuzzy pollen float carelessly through the air.  Soon the dam at Sherwood Lake will be repaired and the lake will fill to the brim with fresh rainfalls.  Once again the water's surface will sparkle and shimmer in the sunlight and share with us it's amazing reflections of red and orange sunsets.  We've been waiting for all these things since the spillway failed back in February of 2014.

It won't be long until a fish bites again on someone's baited hook and quickly sinks their bobber out of sight... and sooner or later another button will pop off someone's shirt and slowly drift to the bottom of the lake, nestling itself amid the sand and pebbles.   Time changes things, but some things never change, and the thought of it all makes me smile!