Vitamin D
Walking when the sun is shining
It’s a rather cold day - but not a frigid one- and so, it’s warm enough and sunny enough to put on the snow pants and boots and have a gander at what’s going on in the woods.
Total silence is what’s going on in the woods.
And wow, how my life needs that.
I’m sure everyone here can relate to the cacophony that is the world at large- the Real world and the News and Social Media, too. Nearly impossible to protect ones psychic space. And so, one must find the remedy of Silence how and when you can.
The trail today only had one other set of boot-prints on it. Those eventually disappeared until all I was left with were animal tracks.
They floated at the edge of the trail, criss crossed in the middle, swooped down into the ravine, and traveled along the edges of fallen trees. Not sure if rabbit, squirrel, coyote, deer, or some mix. A couple of the tracks were a few days old and those were harder to decipher.
I found myself getting a little out of breath - huffing and puffing as I walked through a couple inches of snow. I stopped to record the utter silence. I notice how the light was so gold and the shadows so blue. How every vine was covered with snow.
The Sun lit up the ridges and the lack of foliage made for such wide open s p a c e . Mine was the only car out in the parking lot and to have an expanse of woods to oneself for the afternoon is truly an ecstatic feeling. Didn’t see too much wildlife. Squirrels chittering. A few birds tweeting. But mostly quiet, open air.
The Winter Bellows
at last.
The cold, harsh air
rejuvenates my lungs.
After shoveling the drive,
I wander to the backyard and
drop down on my knees.
Like a child, I sit and watch.
Pawing the snow with
my gloves and drawing it to my
mouth.
In the silence and stillness I
no longer ask for
a sign.
For it is all around me -
and whatever is to come
is also a part of it.
I revel in the thought of my
abandoned shovel in the driveway.
The way my footprints must disappear
in the darkness.
I touch my tongue to the cold-
the cold that has cycled from
the sky and back.
And then I return to the world.
