A hard week. A long busy day. The stress of packing. Finally drive begins. Homes, shops, and business complexes slip away into rural fields. Time losses meaning as you travel the canyon and pull around the last bend in the road. Streaming through the pines the last light of day beams through the fog on the lake. Awe. Wonder. Gratitude. Even though camp will be a late set up, all is right in the world.

Steadily working to make a temporary home in the wilderness your vision is helped by the dancing light from the crackling fire. All becomes quite. The world stills. Gentle slurps and abrupt splashes of fish feeding are interrupted by an ethereal howl. A wolf? Too far south. No, this must be the reason you came to this place, to see and hear the Common Loon.

These moments make it easy to feel of the deep magic of the World. The connection we all feel with life, water, stone and sky. It is time to play your flute.

Common - What a strange word for a bird that is so exotic in appearance and sound! The simple form graced with simple colors. Yet the repetition of white and black changing in an Escheresque way creates for a most magnificent creature.

For many years it was believed that Loons mate for life. Though the family unit is very important to the Loon, they too live complex lives and over the years changes in family structures can happen. Though to our ear one Loon sounds much the same as another, each Loon knows the call of home and seeks to join with the birds it loves.

Family. Love. A desire for goodness. All these feelings are focused through the holiday season and most particularly through Christmas.

Even though our families may seem a bit Loony sometimes, during the Holiday season, one feeling persists. The desire to be with family and loved ones. Though we are greatly missing Julia's mother this year, we find solace as we gathering together and enjoy the eternal feeling of family. Julia and I wish for you an abiding peace in the hope of life and love both now and the hereafter.