In Front of Me




Stalking Egret

We took a houseguest to experience the three-quarter-mile raised boardwalk through fifty acres of Wakodahatchee Wetlands Preserve in Delray Beach, Florida.  The Preserve is just ten miles from our home, and yet it's something Charley and I do only when visitors come...like walking the beach.

The sky remained cloudless, as we glimpsed 'gators and turtles basking on logs or grassy islands.  Fuzzy white egret babies sat in nests not far from gray heron hatchlings.  We ambled, snapping our amateur digital cameras along the way, as pros with long-snouted lenses angled for the perfect shot. A straw hat floated by on the current.  Life slowed to a rare pace of awe and appreciation.

Stepping back into our human world, geckos scurried away from our crunching footsteps.  Inside, I checked our phone book and found the following resources within a fifty-mile radius:

     a planetarium; three wildlife refuges and five nature centers; Blowing Rocks Preserve; Butterfly
     World; Lion Country Safari; a loggerhead marinelife center; three children's museums; two
     science museums; lighthouses and a maritime museum; a native American museum; an African-
     American museum; a Japanese museum and garden; botannical gardens; an 1838 fort; a zoo;
     homes of settlers (such as Henry Flagler), not to mention the art museums and theaters that abound.

It is a privilege to live amid such a paradise of colorful and diverse flora and fauna in south Florida.  I renewed a vow to rediscover what lay in front of me and under my feet.  I wanted to be part of two worlds...like the hat.