Surprise! Florida's Missing Waterfalls and Gifts from Friends Above (Up North)

Florida isn't famous for rock formations or sheets of water cascading over precipitous cliffs into chasms below. And "drought" is not a term most people associate with a state known for its tropical vegetation and associated rainfall. Surprise! Northwest Florida has both topographic and climatic anomalies or exceptions to the rule, and once in a while the drought condition upstages the one that supports a waterfall. Secret Aging Man and I found this to be the case recently at Falling Waters State Park. We were on our way back to Tallahassee last weekend after showing the house to yet another couple who remarked that they liked our home but were determined and eager to buy one of the many "distressed" properties up for grabs. They had already put in a bid on a house much larger than ours with similar features for only 105,000 dollars. Oh, how things have changed since we moved here almost seven years ago. You would have been laughed out of town for an offer like that back then. And that was pre-Hurricane Ivan, before speculating developers got their hands on the land and its resources--including the water. It's unlimited, right? Plenty to go around and then some. Build and build some more. Life in Florida is easy and so is the credit to finance it. Or was, I should say.

The Waterfall

(Henry Vaughan, 1655)

With what deep murmurs through time's silent stealth
Doth thy transparent, cool, and watery wealth
Here flowing fall,
And chide, and call,
As if his liquid, loose retinue stayed
Lingering, and were of this steep place afraid,

The common pass
Where, clear as glass,
All must descend--
Not to an end,
But quickened by this deep and rocky grave,
Rise to a longer course more bright and brave...

Falling Waters State Park wasn't always the kind of place to look for just "watery wealth." Boardwalk trails and clean restrooms didn't beckon curious visitors in years past. Another kind of wealth drew prospectors' interest here when they heard "legends of a rock-enclosed substance that would burn." Click on the pic above to read the details.

Dear stream! dear bank, where often I
Have sat and pleased my pensive eye,
Why, since each drop of thy quick store
Runs thither whence it flowed before,
Should poor souls fear a shade or night,
Who came, sure, from a sea of light?
Or since those drops are all sent back
So sure to thee, that none doth lack,
Why should frail flesh doubt any more
That what God takes He'll not restore?

We might not have autumn in all of its glory here in Florida like most of the country does at this time of year, but we do find pockets of peace to cherish what we do have. Clear skies and cooler temperatures draw us into the woods--healing places where the dry tears and tatters fall away and new growth takes place another day. The waterfall will return in the springtime. I hope.

O useful element and clear!
My sacred wash and cleanser here,
My first consignor unto those
Fountains of life where the Lamb goes!
What sublime truths and wholesome themes
Lodge in thy mystical deep streams!
Such as dull man can never find
Unless that Spirit lead his mind
Which first upon thy face did move,
And hatched all with His quickening love.
As this loud brook's incessant fall
In streaming rings restagnates all,
Which reach by course the bank, and then
Are no more seen, just so pass men.
O my invisible estate,
My glorious liberty, still late!
Thou art the channel my soul seeks,
Not this with cataracts and creeks.

I gave a hint in the title of the post that a gift had arrived. It wasn't really a surprise. I was expecting it to come any day. The postal service certainly can't use any excuses about sleet, snow, or rain delaying the package, and it wasn't the first attempt that Karen of KaHolly and Down in the Hollow fame had made to send me some of her beautiful handmade greeting cards. A set of Eagle cards is still floating about somewhere in North America, or maybe it's landed somewhere it doesn't belong. I just finished filling out a survey for USPS. It didn't pile on any praises for quality of service or timeliness. I sometimes wonder if the Pony Express wouldn't be more efficient? Anyway, thanks, Karen, for your lovely gifts and, most of all, patience. We could all do with a lot more of that virtue/spiritual fruit in this hectic world we share.

On a different note, another blogger friend recently said on his blog that he thinks blogging and other forms of social networking verge on narcissism. That kind of attitude makes me sad for two reasons. First of all, serious psychological conditions have become fodder for psychobabblers who chew on popular literature/trends and then regurgitate the stuff to make themselves look good and often end up making other people feel bad. Secondly, if you think about it, Narcissus--the fellow in Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection and the namesake for a certain modern psychopathy--should never have become so despised and blamed for his lover Echo's despair. Echo, after all, had brought trouble on herself for gossiping, talking too much, and annoying the gods. She was condemned to always have the last word. That doesn't seem like such an awful punishment, unless you consider that she could only repeat what someone else had just spoken and was not allowed to ever give voice to an original thought again. It's no wonder Narcissus plopped himself down on the riverbank and became enchanted with his reflection. Who likes being taunted by having his words flung back at him--a verbal slap in the face? Still, though, if he had really been so pathologically self-absorbed, he would have been gratified hearing his own words replayed. He wanted no part of Echo with her endless repetition. It's a shame that the nymph and son of a nymph couldn't sit down and discuss things sanely over a cup of tea. And not fret about who gets to have the last word on a subject or who's right or wrong--a wonderful exception to the rule in our modern society and quite in line with that other, old-fashioned, unpopular, outdated one. You know--that Golden Rule.