Sitting by the stream in Daydreaming on the Porch

"Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen."

From "Open House for Butterflies" by Ruth Krauss

Many years ago when I lived in Columbia, SC, I had an apartment surrounded by woods in an unusually quiet and remote corner of a large metropolitan area. I couldn't believe my good fortune sometimes as I sat on the balcony overlooking dense woods thick with hickory, oak and pine trees. The hickories turned golden yellow each Autumn. On summer nights the woods were filled with the rhythmic sounds of crickets, frogs and other night creatures. I loved to sit in my recliner chair late at night reading and taking in all the sounds. One would have thought I was out in the middle of the country somewhere.

A short path through the woods led to railroad tracks. Just before reaching the tracks, I could turn to the right and a short trail led to a small creek, barely a couple of feet across, that wound through the woods. There was one particular place along this little stream where the water flowed quickly over a smooth depression in one of the rocks that lined the creek bed. I remember being transported to another place in mind and spirit at this one spot, relaxed and comforted by the timeless and eternal sound of the flowing water, it's own rhythm, energy and pace standing time still for all of those few precious minutes that I lingered there. I've never forgotten that experience. I can hear the creek now as clearly as I did 35 years ago in another time and place, distant only in measurable time.

A little stream in Givhans Ferry State Park near Charleston, SC, that I like to explore whenever I am at the park: