Inspired by our hiking small groups at PCTC, Pastor Julie Delezenne wrote a 12-month hiking devotional to be used by small groups or individuals embarking on hikes in Northern Michigan (or similar climates!). Begin your hike by reading the devotional and closing prayer together and continue with one or more of the listed “practices” during the hike. Suggested hikes listed connect with the theme of the month (but are only suggestions!). May God bless your journey in God’s wonder-full creation.

August

Loons

Suggested Hikes:  

Turtle Cove Nature Preserve
Golden Days Loon Nature Sanctuary (hike at Glacial Hills nearby)

The Loon by Mary Oliver

Not quite four a.m., when the rapture of being alive

strikes me from sleep, and I rise

from the comfortable bed and go

to another room, where my books are lined up

in their neat and colorful rows. How

 magical they are! I choose one

and open it. Soon

I have wandered in over the waves of the words

to the temple of thought.

And then I hear

outside, over the actual waves, the small,

perfect voice of the loon. He is also awake,

and with his heavy head uplifted he calls out

to the fading moon, to the pink flush

swelling in the east that, soon,

will become the long, reasonable day.

Inside the house

it is still dark, except for the pool of lamplight

in which I am sitting.

I do not close the book.

Neither, for a long while, do I read on.

The sound of the loon is one of the sounds of summer in Northern Michigan.  The sound cuts across the water of local lakes and calls to us, like poet Mary Oliver, to pause what we are doing and listen.   We might take notice as we spot a loon on the water with its characteristic black head and red eyes, sometimes carrying a chick on its back.  But it is the call of the loon that can stop us in our tracks.

There are four main calls of a loon: the wail, the yodel, the tremolo, and the hoot.  You can take a listen to each of these here: https://loon.org/the-call-of-the-loon/ 

We are probably most familiar with the first three calls as they are the most distinct.  The calls might be given individually or used in combination, sometimes combined with a physical display, such as the “penguin dance,” and sometimes not.  Many of the calls and physical displays appear to be in response to threats to their young or their nests.   

But the wail, that sound that is probably most familiar to those of us who know the loon, is a call designed to elicit a different kind of response.  In a “Marco Polo” type way, one loon will call out to its mate with the wail and wait for a response.   One biologist says that this is the loon calling out: “I’m here.  Where are you?”  

“I’m here.  Where are you?”  

This is the call of many of the Psalms as well.  The Psalmist will cry: “I’m here, God.  Where are you?”  A wail demanding to be heard and waiting eagerly for a response.  Like in Psalm 28: “I cry out to you, Lord. You are my rock; don’t refuse to hear me.” 

Like the loon, we too want reassurance that we are not alone.  

During the hike:

• Perhaps take this hike in the evening as dusk begins settling in.  You might be lucky enough to hear the call of the loon! 
• Listen to the loon calls: https://loon.org/the-call-of-the-loon/  Which one speaks to your own heart today?  
• Discuss with a hiking partner or ponder alone:  When have you wondered where God is?  Have you heard God’s response, “I’m here”?  What does it sound like?  

Prayer:  Creator God, we are here.  Where are you?  Respond to us when we cry out.  Help us to know that we are not alone. Amen. 

Bibliography

Crowly, Kate and Link, Mike.  “Love of the Loons.” Key Porter Books LImited, 1987. 

Oliver, Mary. “The Loon” in Devotions: Selected Poems of Mary Oliver. Penguin Books, 2019. 

https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/im-here-where-are-you-the-wails-of-the-common-loon