Autumn Afternoon on Lens Lake

Who could even imagine a more spectacular day to paddle an Adirondack lake?  A sky whose blue was only intensified by the presence of puffy white clouds.  Colorful sphagnum bogmats paved with ripe red cranberries.  Acres of cottongrass dancing in the breeze.  Bouldered shores lined with stately trees at near peak of their autumn glory, their colors enriched by reflections in the dark still water.  How to express how the presence of all this unspoiled beauty filled me with delight?  Sometimes, words just fail me.  I hope these photos serve to share my joy.

Ooh, what's this slimy gelatinous creature lurking beneath the water?  I have yet to discover its name, but it's probably some kind of algae.  I find it here in these waters every time I visit.  Despite its seeming grotesqueness, it has its own kind of diaphanous beauty, I believe.

I don't know why nature's beauty feeds my soul so, but it sure does.  Its unmediated rightness seems to tell me something about a Great Goodness that lies at the core of creation, subsuming all pain and sadness and death with a message that "all is well, all is well, and all manner of things shall be well."