There is a No Boats Allowed place just out of St. Paul in Inver Grove that I love to go. It is a huge lake with parts you can’t even drive around–quiet, even when the parking lot is filled with cars and there are children, but today the colors were just right, so we stayed for hours. Open oranges were nailed to a tree, which birds fed from. Shades of blue to white to grey on the water in shifting patterns as the light changed with ripples coming in towards shore. The perfect pastel shade of yellow green on the trees across the water lay my heart quiet from the screams of people hearing the political sirens. The clouds above the treetops white and full to over-brimming. And people fishing everywhere in this clean water where no boats are allowed. Fishing poles are not racist, and accept any hand, and in this haven there were many hands of many colors all enjoying the same place. The water of my city, St. Paul, comes from here.