My parents bought a small cottage in a quiet bay that has remained a treasured retreat for almost half a century. My most special experience there, my Watermark, occurred at shortly after sunrise on a summer morning when I set out alone in my canoe on glass-like water and within 15 minutes had spotted a beaver, an otter, two loons, a family of mergansers, a great blue heron, and three white-tailed deer near the shoreline. All the glory of the natural world, undisturbed by human or mechanical noise, was simply magical.