Wading in a creek can be therapeutic

Everybody needs a creek to wade in. Perhaps an afternoon of wading would calm people down and make them a little less tense and judgmental. Then, again, some people enjoy being cranky.

My brother, David, called and asked if we wanted to meet them at his mom-in-law’s beach on Saturday. Since we didn’t have other plans, we said yes.

We stopped at Skyline Chili for some spaghetti and coneys. Skyline is an acquired taste for some people. They don’t think that chocolate belongs in chili. Some of the other ingredients are also unique to Skyline.

It isn’t what I consider chili. Rather it is more of a sauce than anything. I got a 4-way with onions. That is spaghetti, chili, onions and cheese. Hubby ordered a 5-way. That is the same as a 4-way with the addition of beans. We took our order to Ft. Saint Clair, found an empty picnic table and settled in for lunch. That is the one positive of the pandemic. When we say we are eating out it means outside. It is wonderful.

After we finished lunch we went on to find the world’s smallest beach. His mother-in-law lives just south of Eaton. Ohio. She has five acres or so. We found her place and turned onto an opening in her woods. A parking space opened up across from the creek. David and his wife, Apryl, were right behind us.

The beach itself is between two curves in the creek. It is covered in sand and pebbles. Being on the edge of the creek ,the exact location of the beach varies year to year. David and Apryl have carved out space for a table, chairs, and a canopy to keep the sun from burning everyone. The surrounding trees give off enough oxygen that I wanted to stand there, close my eyes and just breathe.

The original plan was to set up chairs and a table in the creek and play cards. I haven’t played cards since Mom died. I don’t remember why we scrapped the plan but we did. We took our chairs to the creek and settled in with our feet in the water.

We chatted all afternoon. We moved several times to get out of the sun. Their dog, Cosmo, spent the time exploring the creek. I didn’t know that David could skip stones. He would toss them toward Cosmo, and the elderly dog would chase them for a couple of steps then look at David as if to tell him to toss another rock.

The only time Cosmo shook the water off his fur was when he was standing right beside me. David said he had never seen a dog shake while it was already in the water. I think he trained Cosmo to do that.

When it was time to leave we tossed our sandy shoes into the car and headed home. David and Apryl had other friends coming later that day and we wanted to get home before dark.

I can’t even remember the last time I was in a creek. The gently flowing water, the almost invisible fish swimming around and the company of loved ones plus all those trees filling the air with extra oxygen made it easy to forget all about the pandemic and everything else that the media tells we should fear. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.