Everyday Magic
Last week, I headed out to a trail along Marin County’s Lagunitas Creek with a singular hope: to witness salmon on the tail end of their journey from the Pacific Ocean to their freshwater spawning habitat here in California. Several fish species return to this creek every year, including Chinook and Coho salmon and steelhead trout. When I arrived at a trailhead, my two children and sister in tow, another group was just returning from their own salmon-spotting attempt. They hadn’t had any luck, they told us. There were no fish to be seen. This did not bode well for us, I thought, but we hit the trail nonetheless. And minutes later, we spotted our first fish. It was a Chinook, I think, beautiful as it battled its way upstream, flashes of silver shimmering in the water. Then we saw another. And several more. Most were smallish. One was huge. Another was stuck in an exhausting cycle, navigating the same small rapid only to be swept down again, over and over. The persistence of that exhausted, undaunted fish filled me with awe for the pure magic of these ancient animals. Individually, salmon accomplish the seemingly impossible, battling currents, boulders, and downed trees as they migrate miles inland to spawn. Collectively, they have survived tremendous threats to their species in recent decades, including intensive logging and stream sedimentation, loss of waterways to urban development, and massive water diversions. Despite all of this, they keep up their efforts to return to California streams, as they have done for thousands of years. If we could just get out of their way, they might continue for thousands more. As we made our way back to the car, I couldn’t help but feel for the group that hadn’t spotted a single fish; they had missed out on the wonder and joy of the experience. When I relayed the sentiment to my colleague Brian, he pointed out that we all sometimes miss the wonders right under our noses. He’s right. There is hidden beauty all around us, whether we’re looking for it or not. I think there’s a bit of magic in that, too.
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