It’s interesting. When Jesus wanted to pray, according to the Gospels, he would go into the wilderness. In one sense, that’s what my wife and I did when we went on a two-week vacation at the beginning of October. We drove 450 miles north to the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We stayed in a little cabin set 60 feet from the shore of the mighty Lake Superior and eight miles outside the small town of Ontonagon.  

We would wake up hearing the whush of the waves on the big lake crashing into the shore and the rays of the morning sun filtering through the kitchen window. We silently thanked whomever had built this cozy cabin with walls and ceiling paneled in knotty pine for putting a large window on the west wall. 

We would brew a pot of coffee and sit staring at the incoming waves and the large cumulus clouds floating by. As we munched blueberry bagels we made a tentative plan for the day — begin by visiting the Ontonagon ranger station and getting a map of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. 

We turned on the car radio to listen to the news after climbing into our van and were surprised to hear the announcer say it was 11 a.m. Had we spent that much time transfixed by the waves? And then we also realized that we were in the Eastern Time Zone, one hour ahead of Forest Park. 

The ranger at the Ontonagon station said that Lake of the Clouds was the top priority of almost everyone who visited the Porkies. After that, he suggested we might enjoy hiking the Waterfalls Trail although he wasn’t sure my electric scouter could handle the trail. 

We drove about 10 miles south on M64 and turned left on M28 where the trees along the highway opened up to reveal a panorama with the Porkies clothed in autumn color in the background and Lake Superior in the foreground. 

We noticed that about 30 cars filled the Lake of the Clouds parking lot with license plates ranging from Virginia to California. The 50-meter-long “trail” to the viewing platform was a disability-accessible boardwalk through a tunnel of old growth hemlock trees. 

We’d seen pictures of the Lake of the Clouds in travel documentaries, but the sight that greeted us when we arrived at the viewing platform made us want to sing, “Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hand hath made … then sings my soul, how great Thou art.” 

From the escarpment where we were standing we tried to take in mile after mile of wilderness forest dressed in brilliant red, orange and yellow, and 300 feet below the viewing platform the 98 acres of deep blue water known as Lake of the Clouds. 

A few people on the platform chatted with us — saying things like “Where is your home?” and “First time here?” and “Beautiful, isn’t it?” 

We found the interactions pleasant enough, but when all of a sudden everyone disappeared and we were alone on the platform, we sighed in contentment. There are certain times and places where we long for solitude and silence. This was the second time that it had happened in just a few hours. That morning we stared at the waves rolling in on Lake Superior and now we were trying to take in the extravagant beauty all around us. 

For some reason Sigmund Freud came into my mind. Freud used the terms id, ego, and superego in his theoretical model of how the human psyche works, but Freud’s model had no term to describe what was happening to us there in the wilderness. 

I decided that a fourth term needed to be added to the three, and that term is Soul. 

“Then sings my soul,” was the refrain that kept running through our heads. 

We looked at our phones to see what time it was. “Just like this morning,” we said to each other, “Lost track of time.” 

After a good night’s sleep we woke up feeling refreshed, made a pot of coffee, and sat by the window in the west wall of our cabin gazing at the waves on Lake Superior. 

And we began to ponder what we had experienced the previous day. That line from the Eagles, “Peaceful easy feeling,” immediately came to mind as we remembered the beauty of the Lake of the Clouds set like a jewel in a ring of vibrant color. 

We recognized that we had fantasies about being happy if we lived in the midst of all that beauty until we remembered hearing that in this town, although imbedded in beauty, the nearest hospital is 100 miles away, that the economy is weak, that the only nice housing is the summer homes on the lake, owned by rich people, and most kids move out of town as soon as they graduate from high school.