The idea was to get some good shots along the water, but
when we finally found a place to stop there wasn't anything interesting to
photograph. Still, I didn't want to come away without a picture as I had been
the one to push for us to keep driving out further along the peninsula.
I spotted a little outcropping of rocks down near the shore
and asked my sister to carefully climb down and pose on them for a photo.
Despite the look that clearly indicated she was not enthused by the idea, she proceeded to
try and make her way without falling into the water. With some help from Dad, who was more appropriately shoed
for this little rock climbing adventure, they sat and posed for my photos.
While not the beautiful landscape I had planned for, a
wonderful photo of daddy and daughter to commemorate the visit was success. I
walked toward them as they stepped off the rocks. I noticed in the grass a
large brown lump. At first I thought it was just more goose droppings, but for
the size it would have had to been a pile of goose poop. Then I realized it was
a snake, coiled up in the grass.
And so, as my sister was about to cross the grass back to the
path I am standing on I warn her. “When you step, watch out for the snake right
here.” (you know where this is going, right?)
She steps right in the direction of the snake, the snake moves and lifts its head. My sister screams and
jumps several feet in the air and lands on the path.
“I told you to watch out for the snake.”
“I thought you were joking,” she says.
In life, there are all kinds of hidden snakes, many whose
bite are toxic.
There have been times in my life that someone has called out
to me. “Hey, there’s a snake over there. Avoid that direction.” Ignoring them,
I continued heading toward danger. Often I've been bitten, and the "anti-venom" has been a painful process and never a quick fix.
Why does it often take the stinging bite or the scare of a near
miss for us to heed the warning?
People who've been bitten before… they never joke
about snakes.