The water was cool and green, pierced intermittantly by golden shards of sunlight that dazzled like prisms .  She sat, carefree, on the old wooden dock, haphazard slabs of wood like greying teeth in a straight, prim line, beneath her warmed legs and bottom.  Her toes swirled figure eights in the water , enveloping her feet and ankles in it’s cool embrace,  and she breathed in deep lungfuls of the pungent summer air; it tasted clean on her tongue. 

A lone duck glided by on a gently bobbing wave, and the solemn animal glanced over curiously, cautiously, unsure of this human in her home.  Beads of lake-water rolled smoothly down her feathered back like marbles and she lifted her lithe body up briefly, extending her wings.  Was she trying to appear bigger, so that predators wouldn’t mess with her? Or was she simply stretching her weary limbs after  a long day of endless swimming?   Finally, she turned her dark brown eyes away, as if dismissing the human. The girl watched the beautiful bird dunk her smooth head into the water and pull out, then dunk it again and come up chewing.  She made life look so easy, that duck.

Perfecct. The girl murmured to herself, nodding, heedless of whether anyone behind her could see her lips moving to herself.  This is how life should be.

Diamond-glints sparkled atop the water, so many facets winking and blinking teasingly till she was almost blind.  The water seemed to have a life all of it’s own, harbored so much incredible life, and she was grateful to watch and absorb it.  A leaf bobbed close to her foot, then away, then closer still as the waves bore it towards her sun-browned ankle.  She was amazed how that leaf looked, golden, veined and velvety like a butterfly’s wing, even as it swirled a few inches down beneath the mysterious green depth.

“Where are you going?” She wondered aloud.  “Where am I going?”

A nearby boat’s motor whined and pleaded like that dog at the back door begging to be let out into the comforting warmth of the day.  She closed her eyes andfelt the wind tickling her warm skin, heard the whining buzz,  as it filled her ears like cotton, and she sucked in air so deep that she and the lake breathed as one being, swelling in and then whooshing gently back out.  Ebb and flow.   

She wished her life could always be like this--this beautiful, wonderful, clean day at the lake--everyday.