The Boat At Sanctuary Lake

The Boat At Sanctuary Lake

By Paul McCann

Minnie was a mariner and she was married to the sea .Most of her life was spent on cargo ships  that went from port to port , through the wind and rain and the sunshine too around the seven seas  .

After she decided to retire, she bought a little place beside a lake and it was known as  Minnie’s Spot  At the back of the house there was a lake and little boat sat  there tied by a rope to the dock post.  Minnie  often liked to take the boat to go out  on the lake fishing or to cross over to do some shopping at the general store .It was much quicker for her to go in her car but she preferred to go in her boat  across the lake. 

Minnie loved to go  exploring around  the lake that spread itself to the edge of a mountain and everyday her joy was finding  new adventures in her boat on the lake  . She picked wild blackberries and wild flowers  on the mountain . She found a little sanctuary there and built a little shrine made of stones where  she could talk to the wind about her deepest feelings and the stones that were there  never talked back  . She has this Celtic spirituality and, in that sanctuary, she found her heart space . It was a  grounding zone for her where she could retreat to and in that place, she could  refill the wellsprings of the soul .   She had another sanctuary which was being out on the lake in her boat where she could just float away anytime night or day in her little boat .She loved to go out at night on the lake , under the light of the moon that shone down like liquid gold on the surface of the water .

She dreamt of mystical places where she had never been and  imagined herself as  the queen of that land in some distant castle on a mountain too .Minnie was eccentric and very  different to most people and she loved the life she lived .  She had no ties to anyone and lived free .She made friends with the ducks and white swans who lived around the lake and  even the wild goats on the mountain had got used to her coming and going to her shrine ate and came to her for the food she brought and shared.  Apart from her life on the water, she had a little business at Minnie’s Spot where she sold handmade fashion jewellery and candles, biscuits  and  scones with coffee and tea and even her own artworks on canvas to tourists who regularly visited the lake  . Minnie’s Spot was open to customers  only at weekends  and even though it was very popular she chose to have more time for herself that her customers who often  asked her to  open during the week .

Minnie’s peace of mind was in her boat out in the lake where she could just float away . It was her real home out there and, in her boat, she spoke to the spirit of the water, the wind, the air, and the sky . One day when the tourists came for coffee and snacks to Minnie’s Spot it was closed .  Weeks passed and still there was no sign of Minnie .The police were informed and a search began . They found her boat tied to a post on the side of the lake near to the mountain side . Then they found the shrine she had built and, in a bottle, they found a note  that she had wrote and signed . The letter  advised them not  to look for her  because she had gone to her resting place and she was  at peace there and didn’t want to be disturbed . Then as a footnote she wrote instructions of what she wanted done with her little home . 

They read  the note and took her  boat and tied it up to the dock post at her little home and followed her instructions to use  Minnie’s Spot as a holiday house for tourists and to close the shop . 

So, in the passage of time many people came on holidays and paid to  stay  at Minnie’s Spot .  The  local council took the money and maintained the home that became a very popular holiday spot for families .  The little boat was always there at the back of the house tied to the dock post , for any of  the guests to use while they stayed there and guest book was left for anyone who wanted to leave a comment about their stay at Sanctuary Lake .

The End