… is what the sign said on the trail this morning and there was never any doubt in my mind that I would contest right of way with this guy (first two pics).
It was a dull grey start to the day and one that wasn’t likely to produce any bright and shiny pictures. But as I wandered the trail, so many of its natural inhabitants chose that moment to cross in front of me, it made the whole experience more than worthwhile. At one stage, a twelve of thirteen footer tried to come up the bank beside me but when he saw me, he slid back into the water and just watched me for a while (the third pic).
All of which made me think about our role in shaping the environment that these poor creature live in. I recalled a boatman on Lake Kissimmee last year telling me how they keep a running count on alligators in the lake and when it gets to a certain number, they round up the “excess†and sell them to skinning factories. I recoil from the thought almost as much as the poor gator this morning recoiled from me.
If there is ever a day of reckoning for what we are doing to the world’s creatures, I truly hope I am not around to pay that tab!
The fact that there is even a sign on the trail telling us “Yield to Nature†is a shameful reminder of how little respect many of us have for it.
But on a happier note, by the time I left the trail this morning, my soul felt like it had been at an all-you-can-eat buffet of natural beauty. It was stuffed, happy, and sleepy. ?
May your soul experience the same feeling this coming week!
