This was the parting comment from an appreciative visitor to the dam last night. She and her family had come from out of town for the evening to watch the beavers, have dinner downtown, and then return to the waterside for a final glimpse. She thanked us earnestly for pushing the city into allowing the beavers to stay and said that the sight had been amazing, “like a temple”. And it is true, every single member of the family had stood and watched reverently as three baby beavers paddled around the main pond.
(Finally, a religion I can understand!)
The sense of entering a sacred space is powerful and certainly one I have had visiting the beavers at times. I can remember particular moments in nature – an oxalis carpeted redwood grove, a cathedral of bay lining both sides of a leaf-covered canyon, standing in a blanket of snow while broad flakes fall all around you, a quiet moment watching a mother deer with her fawn – these are truly ‘temple’ experiences and I’m grateful for every one. It touches me deeply that the visiting family found that kind of peace and wonder in the presence of our beavers, and was generous enough to share it.
Finding the same feeling in manmade structures has been more elusive, but here is a place I was lucky enough to glimpse it:
Photo: Heidi Perryman
the hypostyle hall at Karnak in Egypt.
