Cross Over Island resides dead center of the Saint Lawrence River close to where I grew up as a child. The River, as I call it, spans a width of about 1.25 miles on average but gets wider in different places. It has several locks that help transcend rapids along the way. The River begins at Lake Ontario and flows 1900 miles into the world's largest estuary, the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The River has always been "my place" it holds a place in my heart that began pre speech for me. It is believed that if one was dunked in the River as an infant you were considered a "River Rat." One would think that "river rat" is a derogatory term, but it isn't we, those of us who claim to be a river rat, wear the title as a badge of honor. There are even local purveyors who sell river rat cheese and river rat wine... one wouldn't know this unless they grew up on the river. The thing about growing up on a river is that one often sits one the porch or dock watching life pass by, floating down or being propelled up river. The weather comes different directions, one can see it coming" either up, down or across the river. This summer many ships have passed by, going up river, carrying huge rotor blades for wind generators that are being built somewhere. Every time I see those rotor blades being being carried across ships I get a sense of hope in my heart that somewhere people get it about using wind and solar to meet our energy needs and are trying to make a difference...
ship carrying Rotor Blades for a very large wind generator
There is something special about Cross Over Island... You see it is our local marker for the demarcation zone between Canada and the US. North of Cross Over the shipping lane for the St. Lawrence is in Canada (that is Canada in the photo above) and it is right before this Island that the ships literally cross over into the US shipping channel.
I think of this place of "cross over" as a much more metaphorical place as it marks that place of transition, the light guiding the way towards, hopefully, safety. Metaphorically it is so true that every time one steps into the river it is a different river things are always flowing somewhere else. We step in and cross over all of the time, every day... Change even happens if we are just sitting still mindfully watching the sun set... Take the time to enjoy it all...
Sunset on a very little one of the 1000 Islands at the River...
Blessings to you, Rev. Marjorie
As a kid, I was called "water rat" more than a few times because I spent so much time in the ocean.
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