Going, Going, Gone
The last several times my wife and I have journeyed out on our wildlife safaris (very small game), we have seen dwindling numbers and fewer species of both birds and animals.
Great Egrets beautified our area's small wetland ponds for what seemed like only a few weeks, and now, except for a straggler here and there, they are gone. Some flew to the southeastern part of the US, others to Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean.
Nearly every fall now, as my active life recedes, I often think of the phrase in the old hymn that we used to sing in our small country church, "Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, Be in time."
Sweet, cuddly babies grow into young children with a mind of their own. Young children develop into teenagers, 'nuff said, and suddenly they are adults with their own families, as our daily influence on their lives almost disappears, and we face the challenges of finding meaning in empty homes and frail bodies.
The cycle of life that once seemed endless in our youth does indeed end, both for the wildlife of our world as well as for the humans that take pleasure in them for a season.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)
Going, Going, Gone
The last several times my wife and I have journeyed out on our wildlife safaris (very small game), we have seen dwindling numbers and fewer species of both birds and animals.
Great Egrets beautified our area's small wetland ponds for what seemed like only a few weeks, and now, except for a straggler here and there, they are gone. Some flew to the southeastern part of the US, others to Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean.
Nearly every fall now, as my active life recedes, I often think of the phrase in the old hymn that we used to sing in our small country church, "Life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, Be in time."
Sweet, cuddly babies grow into young children with a mind of their own. Young children develop into teenagers, 'nuff said, and suddenly they are adults with their own families, as our daily influence on their lives almost disappears, and we face the challenges of finding meaning in empty homes and frail bodies.
The cycle of life that once seemed endless in our youth does indeed end, both for the wildlife of our world as well as for the humans that take pleasure in them for a season.
(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)