Impromptu Zen meditation on the river

On this sunday as I was getting ready to go to bed early with my book (Jean Luc Hees, La Saga de la Maison Blanche) and as I was preparing herbal tea from my garden, :) I saw this great blue heron flying over right in front of our boat. I fetched the binoculars and sat down on the dock, and spent half an hour watching that guy. Hadn't I seen him flying over the river, I wouldn't have noticed him, as once he settles somewhere, he blends in in such a way that you got to know he's there to see him. So the heron landed on the shore of the island facing our boat, on the grey sandy beach, and started pacing the beach back and forth, looking for his dinner. He had 3 fishes in less than 15 mns. The guy, as everybody knows here, has that ashy grey-blue hue, so that he can blend in almost any landscape. There you could hardly see him against the grey sand on shore. As I watched him patiently, very, very slowly pacing the shore for his meal, I was fascinated by the gracefulness of his quest, and the reason why it looked so graceful is because it was slow, very slow, and cautious. Fishermen should learn from this guy. There is a ballet called the Swan lake, there should be one about those blue herons, the most graceful creatures ever. The way he stretches his slender neck while very cautiously moving towards his prey is unbelievably beautiful. I think he's actually much more elegant than a swan. So he caught 3 fishes, and then flew over to another little nook on the river, O what a gracious flight, O those wide, heavy wings, O that slow flight that looks like a slow motion picture! and the discreet noise of the fluttering wings! Then he landed on a group of tress bending over the river, stayed there for a while, stretching his neck, turning his head right and left like a prima ballerina, as if trying to show his best profile, and then he cautiously, again with that very slow gait of his, receded into the woolands, gradually disappearing in the twilight zone. I don't need to meditate tonight.