The heat of September has settled upon us. It has been so dry lately that several parishes in northern Louisiana have issued burn bans.

Humid Louisiana prohibits fire because it’s too dry. Does that qualify as an oxymoron?

Norm’s cousin provided just the respite we needed from the inferno of late summer in Louisiana: a day on Caney Lake.

This gem of a lake was created when Caney Creek was dammed.

Hidden within the rolling hills and pine forests, earthly beings unaccustomed to earthly pulchritude would hardly believe in its existence.

But the beauty of this place is, indeed, perceptible even to the eye untrained.

Up.

Down.

All around.

To perceive beauty is to acknowledge the universe’s potential.

Everything that is, is here now.