Close Encounters

In the midst of this stressful season in my life I do have my light moments. This past weekend my husband and I spontaneously packed up a picnic dinner and headed out to the coast to watch the fireworks that happen nightly all summer at one of the local attractions. We parked in the parking lot of a park across the water from where the fireworks are set off and took some time to wander around the shoreline as the sun finished setting. We spent the next hour or so as the sky continued to darken watching the fishermen around us, the lights pass around us from cars on various roads that we could see, and the boats coming in from a busy day on the water. Slowly I began to unwind. My mind was running around just a touch slower and I could breathe again.

A little while before the fireworks began I looked down at the boulders at my feet that sloped down into the water and was startled to see a beady pair of eyes staring back at me. Bigger than a mouse, though I did see one of those later, too. These were larger than I would have expected, black and deep, just a foot or so away from my toes. I looked again in the weak light of the parking lot lights and realized that they were a part of a pale, pointed face, a grey or blackish body, and a long, flexible, naked tail. Yup. This was a genuine opossum encounter. He (I didn't check, but just sort of labeled it a him) investigated around the rocks and found some leftover bait to chew on for a while. We tossed a few lumps of bread leftover from our dinner to him and admired his very sharp little teeth and cute paws from where we sat. I was rather entranced by the whole thing once I relaxed about having something with a large quantity of sharp teeth within reaching distance of my toes in their sandals. I kept watching him hunt for his supper (breakfast?) until the booming of the fireworks sent him back to his nest and safety.

The fireworks were beautiful, but I remember the possum and that encounter more from that night!

I am sharing this post through Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky. Check it out for more inspiring stories of special moments in the midst of the ordinary.