Just Awesome

I get to a lot of places for my job. One day I got to spend the afternoon in the Baseball Hall of Fame by myself as it was closed except for the construction work.

Friday was almost as cool.

I took a call late Thursday to meet one of my clients at the base of The Falls as they are doing some work at Goat Island.

I never found the crew.

Part of it was because I was suddenly amazed by what I was seeing. Of course I'd been to the Falls a number of times. It's only 20 miles or so from the house, but being that I've been absolutely consumed by work lately, the trip was different on Friday.

As I moved along the river towards the Falls I was struck by the surging water.

Go figure.

I'd forgotten how awesome it is.

There were tour groups all along the rail near the Horseshoe Falls and most of them were Asian. They were all laughing and talking and mugging for the camera.

The Maid of the Mist was cruising slowly and a few people hung out in the mist letting it sort of pelt them in their yellow rain coats.

I stopped a few times to snap photos.

I kept thinking:

"Awesome."

and

"Strength."

And I thought about everything. The fatigue in my mind and body was displaced by the brute strength of the cascading waters.

I thought about how it was all explained by nature. There was a young teacher at the benches talking history. I heard her tell her class of 7th or 8th graders that the Army Corps shut down the Falls completely in the 1960's. I heard one of her students ask if the Falls was created by the slow-moving glaciers.

Is that true?

I knew the Great Lakes were formed that way, but I had other ideas.

I felt as if I were in the presence of a true wonder of the world. Of something that was created by God, like the nuns pointed out.

The true beauty of the world.

The majestic power of God's hand.

With everything seeming to crash down, on a busy mid-morning.

I felt the power.