Feeling somewhat challenged by the events of the day,  joints aching, feet sore and reflecting Methuselah rather than Freeman Tilden, I decided that I would take but a short walk. As I left the restaurant, I meandered down the path to the dam and spillway. Perhaps it was my thirst, barely slaked by the Gatorade I had, that guided my path to this oldest of man-made features here at Douthat State Park.

 

 

 

 

I am a firm believer in epiphanies, the ah-ha moment or as substance recovering people call “that moment of clarity”. I experienced on such a moment as I stood there on the precipice. At all points in my life through good and bad and in all seasons I have been drawn toward water the ocean with its timeless ebb and flow, salinity that matches that of its own blood and whom it's the birthmother of the world and all in it. The rivers and streams of Virginia especially the Appomattox in whose water I swam and fished as a child on who’s I lived and still live along today and whose history and history of its people I interrupt.

 

 

It is these waters of those and those of our state parks that link us altogether despite our many origins and differences. It is this water that nourishes the life in and around these wild places and nourishes the soul and spirit of each one of us who visit here. We may not be from this place but we are very much of this place.

 

 

It is a sense of stewardship and interconnectedness that we should strive to help visitors take away from these places.