in the boggy moment

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If you follow the philosophy espoused by Ralph Waldo Emerson, you know to live in the moment. The past is past, forget it; it's unfixable. The future is unknowable, you can loosely plan for it but it's a crapshoot, so don't fret it. The here and now, this very moment, this instant, this nanosecond, is all that truly matters. It is what's real, vibrant, alive, fresh, green, happening, etc. etc. You get the idea.

True joy can only be found in the "moment."

Last night my fellow bog-sloggers and I experienced a purely perfect natural moment. An American woodcock performed his courtship display, his ardent "peenting" song, right on schedule, right on the same out-of-the-way, in-the-middle-of-nowhere (forgive my own ardent use of hyphens) sodden piece of terra firma as last year, his singing ground. Again the dude abides.

And our group was hidden in the cedars surrounding him to watch it all happen. He seemed oblivious of his voyeurs. He was crooning for a female, a momentary partner to share his lust for life. If he knew we were there, he simply did not care. For he was living in the moment as were we all.

It was a good time. In the moment.

Special thanks to Ijamsians Jen and Wayne Roder, Emily and Than Boves for sharing the moment with me. (They are that smiling foursome on the right.)

- Pictured above: the hardy bog-slogging, Ijams' woodcock walkers of 2011.

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