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Natural Surprise

     When was the last time you were truly surprised?  Not pleasantly surprised, but truly surprised.  Was it a birthday party your friends and family pulled off behind your back, or the reaction of someone that radically did not fit your expectation?  

    Currently, some of us are continually being surprised by the feckless behavior of many politicians.  Their prioritizing party politics over morality or ethical behavior falls more under the heading of disappointment, but to see it from those we had a modicum of respect for is shocking.

    Surprises are best when they come out of the blue.  I should say under the blue.  Nature provided me with two wonderful surprises on days when the sky was blue and bluer.  

    I was casting a fly one summer afternoon in the headwaters of the Deschutes River.  This is a magical little spot where the mighty Deschutes actually springs out of a small lake and meanders through a meadow looking more like a spring creek.  It's also the place I first caught a brook trout on a fly, so holds a special affection for me.  One afternoon about 10 years ago I chanced to find myself alone in this enchanting spot.  I was running a nymph through a small set of riffles when I noticed a set of eyes poke out of the water about 20 feet t my left.  Is that a beaver? I thought.  Am I having the quintessential Oregon experience?  (We are the beaver state) No, within minutes the eyes re-appeared attached to a friendly otter.  I backed up a few feet to let him know I was not aggressive and that I realized this was his home turf.  He soon disappeared but returned a few minutes later with his family.  I watched spellbound as his mate, their two pups, and then finally their breadwinner crossed the river in front of me and then slowly swam away down the riverbank on the opposite.  The last image I have of them is all four bookended by mom and pop swimming in an S pattern close to the bank and out toward another meadow. The smile that they gave me lasted for two days.



    Another natural surprise I received came in a very different environment.  I was traveling to a few Hawaiian islands with two friends one time in the mid-1980s.  My travel-mates were both on restricted diets by choice and were not drinking coffee.  OK, I thought I can drink tea for a couple of weeks.  By the third day on the big island of Hawaii, I was lusting for a good cup of coffee.  I even brought a small plastic bag of my favorite house blend, should I need it.  The problem was, I couldn't find a coffee filter anywhere. There were no large supermarkets near our condo there, but I found a little hardware/general merchandise store and bought a small funnel.  I tried a paper towel as a filter and worked... somewhat.



    After a few days of drinking bad coffee, I was ready for a change.  We were headed to some historical site to visit the next day, I looked at the map (that's all we had in those days) and saw that the famous Kona Coffee Company was a short mile or two from where we'd be.  Later that afternoon, I excused myself from one of the historical site visits and found myself walking along a narrow highway toward the town of Kona.  It was a pleasant walk, with lush flora and beautiful birdsong in my background.  As I rounded a curve, my eyes found a large tree whose branches made a nice shady spot I'd soon walk through. About halfway up the tree, my gaze fell on a huge white face.  An owl, ogling me, friendly but nevertheless demanding immediate respect.  I stood still.  What a stunning sight.  Frozen in my mind forever.  Natural surprise.


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