The Fish Wizard

Last night, I found myself crowded in a boat's bow, crammed together with three other listeners--my children--and a dog, wrapped in a story read to me and the others by the Fish Wizard.

The Fish Wizard had driven us in the boat just after sunset to a quiet spot, nestled among several islands, the nearest of which was no more than a very large granite boulder, a bit of Canadian Shield, inhabited only by loons, mergansers, and other birds.

The Fish Wizard cut the engine and invited us all--canine and non-canine--into the bow of the boat, where she offered blankets to protect us from the growing cool of the night and a shoulder to lean on. I was nestled up against Tae and found Baker's feet in my lap. I rubbed his feet quietly as the Fish Wizard began her story.

"'The Lorax,' by Dr. Seuss," she said. She read the tale with ease, Riley's head resting gently on her shoulder and we all listened with interest as the Lorax warned the narrator against cutting the Truffula Trees, as he ignored that advice and the world fell towards an ugly future, and as the Onceler offered the narrator his one chance at redemption.

The Fish Wizard wore a purple cape and this hat as the sky began to fill with stars.

I admit to taking a moment away from the story to appreciate the larger magic that the Fish Wizard had created...not just the tale that Seuss wove so well. She had brought us to a place filled with beauty, with the three children that are not just near to our hearts but of our hearts, and at just the right time of day. As I looked around the lake and then more closely around the boat--at Henry's handsome profile (Henry the dog), at the way Tae cuddled into Baker, at Riley's complete relaxation and absorption in the moment, at Baker's still childlike appreciation of a good story, and at the Fish Wizard herself, dressed in her Cap and Cape, children surrounding her Mary Poppins-like; as I looked at all this, I felt the bliss and the blessings of that moment and this life.

I don't always have the right state of mind to appreciate my many blessings so I committed in that moment of appreciation to writing some of them down. Fish Wizard, I just wanted to let you know that you are number one among them.

The Fish Wizard (wearing a different cap)