Striated Red Heckel Cross Throwback Discus

I’m riding my Harley Sportster through the curvy, sweeping two lane road running along Seven Lakes Drive in Bear Mountain New York, admiring the colors and leaves of Autumn that are, on a much larger scale, like a dreamy tour through my fish tank and the Red Heckel Cross discus that live in tranquil harmony behind the glass window through which I gaze at their little community. I’ve done this often when I find myself stressed out. The rumble and chatter of my V-twin powerplant is in stark yet poetic contrast to the peaceful, quiet and serene setting inside my fish tank where my beautiful tropical fish swim, glide, and congregate together, forming little families of color and shape that are equally expressed on this exhilarating ride through the fall foliage and the multi-hued red, brown, and yellow leaves that look remarkably in color and shape like the striated red heckle relaxing in their own permanent world of fall foliage colors and breathtaking beauty in my beloved tank.

On a ride like today, I’m practically flying, gliding through this charming forest, this gift of nature, that gives us a brief tease, signaling the wistful goodbye to summer and the inevitable nod to winter around the corner, around the next sweeping curve taken on my two-wheeled companion. We are as one, sailing through a landscape of trees, plants, lakes and small animals that remind me why its so important to leave the hustle and bustle of urban and suburban life. It’s a feeling I can return to and re-experience in some small measure each time I zone out in front of my tank full of brown and white speckled and striped leaf-like Red Heckel Cross discus. Were I to come back one day as one of them, I would gladly trade in my Harley for an aquatic existence in the tank of an appreciative and knowledgeable fan of tropical fish and a yen for communicating and re-connecting with nature.