It's A Sad Day At The Lake

We purchased our Minnesota lake home twenty years ago this month. We're in the woods north of civilization by about thirty miles and the lake, Ten Mile, is one of the most pristine in the State. Unlike many lakes ours has a beauty all it's own. The water clarity is twenty feet. At its deepest point one could drop a plumb line down to two hundred ten feet. Aside from Lake Superior it's the deepest lake in Minnesota. Beginning around ten yesterday morning the winds began to blow, thirty to forty miles an hour. The waves were crashing over the docks to the point that dock slats were all over the 5,000 acre body of water. Boats were being flipped in the water from their lifts at the delight of each wave. My daughter, visiting from Texas, happened to look out our front window and saw the slats bobbing on the dock frame and made a beeline to the shore before they made a break for open water As it was some of these, five in all, found themselves floating away to various parts of other properties. Four of my neighbors who have lived in these parts for years concur that the waves were the highest ever seen.
One of the first things I noticed about our property in 1994 was a certain pine tree that protruded outward toward the lake on a horizontal plane. It was forty feet in length and was positioned ten feet above the shore. I always asked myself how this gift from God could survive the harshest of winters, torrential rains and devastating winds often seen in this part of the nation. Every year I'd look at that pine and marvel at its strength and dominance as it mastered the elements. I thought it was virtually indestructible. Two days ago I gazed at it as I was docking the boat after a morning of fishing. I will not be able look at it anymore because the wind finally got the best of it. The entire base, roots and all, are in the water. As with all of us nature is still the conqueror. It's quite sad, really. Like a good friend who nurtured us with their presence our special pine will soon leave the property, taken away by some lumber company and disposed of accordingly. Even so, I will always have the memory of that one majestic pine that graced our lake bank for so many, many years.