Sunday Solitude.

Hello and Happy Sunday everyone! It was a cool start to the day but it warmed up nicely, if 73F (23C) can be considered warm. I guess it is though, but certainly a long ways from hot. We won’t likely see any truly hot weather anymore this year, though September has surprised us on occasion with temps up around 90 to 95F (32 to 35C), so, maybe it will happen again this year. But even when that happened before, it was only two days in a row.

I actually saw a butterfly today, the first one since early July, and I didn’t get a picture. By the time I got outside with my camera, the butterfly was long gone somewhere else. Oh well, it was nice to see anyway. That butterfly reminded me of solitude, the kind I used to enjoy down by the river. When my friend and I were out last week on another trip down the highway visiting some lakes, that was also a time of solitude.

Stopping by a calm lake, listening to the birds chirping in the trees, not really singing like they do in early summer, but lots of chirping as they talk to one another. All of them getting ready for their journey south, well, actually, they were already on that journey south.

It was nice to hear them, and see so many different species as well. A little sad too, knowing that they were going back south until next spring. For some of those birds it will be 8 or 9 months before they return. They stay for 3 or 4 months and then leave. Some of our birds are only here for about 2 and a half months or less.

But it’s so nice to be out and enjoy the end of summer where it’s quiet, away from being “busy” and just enjoy a slower pace for a few hours. Solitude. Quietude.

Enjoying summer flowers that have now gone to seed, that is beauty, that is solitude.

Being out beside a small lake, away from others, that is solitude. Listening to the call of the loon, that is solitude.

Listening to the silence while sitting beside a calm lake, that is quietude. That is pleasure. That is beauty. That is country solitude.

Watching minnows swimming in the clear water of a country lake, that is solitude. Watching a fish jumping completely out of the water, that is solitude.

Lying on a hillside watching clouds slowly drifting past, that is solitude. Well, I hope you all have a great week ahead and God bless!

Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.