Just Water

An Apostle Islands postcard

It’s just water, just light. Yet some mornings it feels like something more, some synergy between these two most basic of the earth’s elements. It feels like there should be music, a symphonic score as the strings of morning light strum the still waters. At times, it is one of the most artistic collaborations in all of nature - the simple dance of water and light. You find yourself wanting to move along with it, to sway with its rhythmic motions. You feel the urge to sing or play an instrument - a flute perhaps with wavering notes of your own breath, or you look for lines of poetry to recite, the script in the cursive waves.

But sometimes, some mornings, the best and proper response is simple silence, and so that is what you take on as your part. You are an audience of one, just sitting on the silenced Little Dipper and watching, your contribution, the grateful and silent applause of your own beating heart.

— Jeff Rennicke(all photography by the author unless otherwise noted).