Lake Life

I’m lucky enough to have lived near Lake Erie my whole life. Over the past few years craft shows in the area and local boutiques have become overrun with all things “lake life”. It has taken me a long time to come to terms with that. I always thought, why the lake? Don’t most people want the ocean beaches? But in the last week I’ve been to the lake twice and I realized something.

The lake is an ever-changing source of beauty in my life. I’ve never gone on a boat on Lake Erie and I avoid swimming in it from when there were tons of high bacteria level warnings. Not to mention, I’m also much more of a cool-and-dry person than hot-and-wet person. However, over the course of my life the lake is where I went to observe the beauty of nature and find a sense of peace.

My phone is littered with pictures of the lake. All of them are different. Some have the daytime pictures of the water or the sandy beach. Others are of sunsets, each lit up with different colors. The water is either rough and wavy, a mirror-like glass, or something in between. Even the pictures I’ve seen other people share of the lake when a storm is coming in contain the beauty of the anger those waves hold and the ominousness of the cloud covered sky. There are a few times I’ve ventured out on the lake beaches when the water is completely frozen over. The waves never completing their crash to the beach until spring thaws them out again.

Now, as a mother I still go there to enjoy nature but I’m also there to share the experience with my son. I love to observe what he chooses to get into while there. For example, today we brought a bucket and shovel to the beach. I expected him to dig in the sand with me and look for sea glass or shells or at the very least, rocks. Like all toddlers, his love for rocks is never-ending. He also wore his swim trunks which I tried to make him leave behind but he insisted. I figured we would hardly get wet because I wasn’t planning on having us swim. I let him put his feet in the water because I was doing it too and it would help wash the sand off. He never looked for shells or sea glass with me. He did however, throw an infinite amount of rocks into the lake. And when I was busy searching for sea glass, he took his bucket. Did he use it to collect shells? No. Did he use to collect sand or rocks? No. He went to the water’s edge and let the waves fill his bucket and proceeded to dump a bucketful of lake water on his head. So much for not needing the swim trunks right? I sighed the giant universal sigh of parenthood for an unforeseen mess ahead. Then I just let him have at it. He was already wet so it wasn’t worth telling him no and he had an absolute blast! I loved watching him laugh and explore Lake Erie just like every other time I’ve brought him. As a result, it brought me back to my recurring thoughts and dreams about someday having a way to get out on the water with him. Most likely this would be by jet ski, kayak, canoe, or paddleboard. And so through all of the stages of my life Lake Erie has been a place of peace, safety, beauty, joy, and inspiration. It is with this realization that I finally understand why the people in this area are proud of the “lake life”.