| > | | | | it's worrying about what others think, watching the |
| | | | signs "out there" rather than tuning inward, or simply |
| Wonders never cease. Just when those in our area of | | | | going with the flowsometimes too much |
| the Delaware River were beginning to recover from | | | | sooccasionally in my life I have looked around and |
| the recent floods, a whale arrives to shake things up. | | | | wondered, "Now how the heck did I get here?" |
| A 15-foot Beluga whale-now identified as named | | | | Whether you call them epiphanies, hitting rock bottom |
| "Helis" and hailing from the St. Lawrence Estuary in | | | | or great awakenings, our detours, however painful, give |
| Canada--has been spotted swimming up and down | | | | our lives their character. Sometimes wrong turns can |
| the water near Trenton, New Jersey. Passersby | | | | be great adventures, giving us clarity and new ideas. |
| gathered to spot the beautiful creature today. Although | | | | Often, they give us the opportunity to shed our skins |
| I wasn't among those to who saw him, a few lucky | | | | and begin anew, a surprising benefit freshwater has on |
| neighbors spotted him making playful splashes. | | | | beluga whales, experts say. Occasionally, they take us |
| All this talk about whales had made me wonder what | | | | to places more incredible than our wildest dreams, just |
| made this lone traveler (who if he is true to his breed, | | | | by "accident." |
| usually migrates in pods of two to 25) choose to get | | | | So, I say to the Beluga, whatever your reason for |
| so off-course to take a 125-mile detour away from | | | | being here, be it a personal adventure, wrong turn, or |
| the sea, a 800-mile detour from home. | | | | perhaps even a blessing to those like me who needed |
| Everyone has ideas. Perhaps the flooding, some say. | | | | to look at their surroundings a bit differently-follow |
| Perhaps the plentiful herring and shad in these parts, | | | | your soul home, my friend. |
| say others. But no one really knows for sure. Except | | | | May you be safe, well, and enriched somehow by |
| the whale. | | | | being one of the fewif not the onlyof your kind |
| I can relate. Sometimes I get off-course too. Whether | | | | to have ever traveled these waters. |