Author’s note: I wrote this at Deep Bay BC on Vancouver Island one early morning in the summer of 2024. I was alone and I shut my eyes and listened to the world around me as it woke up to greet another day.

Eagles soaring high up on the wind, silently imperial in their grace

Birds singing a morning symphony in the forested cathedral nearby

Seals snorting and slapping the water, as they have since before when

The sun rising quietly in the east, clouds passing on there way, somewhere

Hummingbirds feeding at the honeysuckle bush, magically suspended by whirring wings

Flowers reaching to the sky in sprays of endless colour

Bumble bees busily buzzing from one to another

Tides on the move, always on the move

Waves lapping, winds rippling the water with endless patterns

Herons standing still, so still, reflected in the tidal pools teeming with life

It is a place where I find words are inadequate.

We are just visitors to this timeless cycle.

In awe of it all for it is not something we have made, it is not something we have created.

Though it is something we may destroy.