Brief-Form Post #18: Lake Guntersville State Park Inspiring Clouds and Sky!
I am pleased to offer the 18th of my new GBH Brief Form Posts (Less than three minutes to read, plus viewing the short videos!). I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
Brief-Form Post on Inspiring Clouds and Sky mid-June 2023 at Lake Guntersville State Park
I visited Lake Guntersville State Park for an Alabama State Parks Foundation Board meeting on July 19, just a month following my triple bypass surgery, my first recovery venture to one of our 21 Alabama State Parks. No, I did not explore sylvan realms along shady trails. Instead, I found rewarding vistas from my lodge room balcony and from the observation deck outside the restaurant.
I embraced and photographed the late afternoon (5:00 PM) view of the lake with cirrocumulus clouds spanning the sky above. The balcony perches 350 feet above the water.
I scurried (within the limits of my recovery!) to the observation deck outside the restaurant when, almost too late (7:55 PM), I noticed the setting sun.
Because a still photo misses so much spirit and magic, I captured the moment with this 42-second video at 8:03 PM!
Sunset moments bring the day to an end, yet they fail to express the promise, hope, and joy of a new day dawning. My dawn balcony view (6:17 AM) offers the same perspective as my prior afternoon’s 5:00 PM vista.
I recorded this 30-second video from our Lodge room balcony just five minutes later.
Just 13.5 hours had elapsed (from 5:00 PM to 6:33 AM) since my first image the prior afternoon. However, my re-entry to the State Park Nature arena returned a incalculable measure in form of her beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration. This view to the ENE gazes directly into the rising sun, apropos to my feeling of returning to the normalcy of a new day…a new time…a new beginning…emerging from the murky uncertainty of major surgery spurred by a life-threatening medical condition.
I’m ready to tackle new ventures…a second chance, as summer promises to transition to fall’s cooler weather and welcoming trails.
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts to a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Sometimes, I borrow a distinct reflection from the truly great minds of antiquity, for no matter how hard I try I am unable to best those whom I have followed and revered across my seven-plus decades. In this case, it is John Muir who captured the essence of Nature’s elixir 120 years ago:
- The world’s big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.
NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15-seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!
