Sunrise, Racine Yacht Club, the beginning of my Lake Michigan sailing adventures 43 years ago
On April 24th, I will be speaking about a lake I have loved since childhood. In preparation, I reread my book, Uncharted Waters: Romance, Adventure and Advocacy on the Great Lakes. My favorite passage was written at a time I worked in northern Illinois while Rubin, the man who makes me laugh, sands down the intense edges of my personality, and knows and loves me just as I am, ran a business in Nashville. Consumed by career, I lived on a sail boat in Winthrop Harbor for three years, hoping to bring balance to my lopsided life.
Driving back to the boat each evening, I feel a sense of peace settle about me the minute I see Lake Michigan through the windshield. “Hello, Lake,” I say with a giant smile. With that first step on the pier, I feel as if an angel is lifting all heaviness from my shoulders, freeing me to see, smell, touch, hear, and experience all the glory of life . . . all the joy in living. Accompanied by frogs, crickets, birds, and mosquitoes, I sit in the cockpit as the soft, black carpet of night becomes the backdrop to an ensemble of stars flickering across the skies until they near the lake’s horizon. Then blackness.
Only the moon dances on Lake Michigan. And her dance begins to awaken the buried dreams of a child paging through a book of poetry.
To this day, I feel that same way every time I step from a marina parking lot to the pier leading to our boat. I hope you, too, have a special place on this planet—a place where you experience all the glory of life, the joy of living; a place where you can occasionally reassess your life’s direction. And be at peace.
A Lake Michigan Love Song: Caring for This Place We Call Home” by Mary McKSchmidt
April 24th, 3:00 p.m. at the Portage United Church of Christ, 2731 W. Milham, Portage, MI. Open to the public.
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