My best friend died 15 months ago. There will be a celebration of life for her and remembrance of her birthday this month. I’ll not be able to attend due to my international travel. While I think of her often, most recently my thoughts were in connection with the common loon.
For some background … In college, a buddy of mine and I canoed to an island in Stillwater Reservoir in NYS’s Adirondack Mountains. Each night I heard the eerie, wailing call of a loon communicating with another. When I first heard it I thought something horrible was happening to something or somebody, until my college buddy told me it was a common loon!
Fast forward a few years from that experience. My best friend and I were at my shack in the Adirondack Mountains when I proposed a 4 mile hike for us to take the following day. I believed we would find loons on a local lake. True to many of our adventures, we went! We were in luck finding a female loon and her young nestled within the grassy and reedy edge of the lake. Thus began our shared love of loons!
Throughout the decades of our friendship, my friend and I supported each other. We each had challenges in our lives with new careers and responsibilities. Through it all we continued our search for loons, especially when we hiked in the Adirondack Mountains. This book was a special gift from my friend and I still have it 37 years later!
Another gift hung by my front door for years; now I keep it tucked on the ground in my backyard in Arizona for me to see each day. It reminds me of such fun times!
My celebration of my best friend prompted me to draw the bird we both loved … the common loon! It’s an amazing bird to see, to hear, and to learn about. Each time I see a photo or drawing of one, I think of the memories I had with my friend. We enjoyed shared time searching for, finding and watching this bird! It was wonderful!
