Warm and sunny are usually not part of a January day in the Northeast US. But if Nature is going to provide springtime, I would be disrespectful if I stayed indoors. The signs of spring were all around - buds have formed on the Tulip Trees, I saw more hawks and deer than I’d seen in weeks, even a few insects woke up. I wore my spring weight gear and even that felt too warm.
It was rough hiking - flooded in some areas, icy in others, snow caving under my weight when I least expected it. I got a good workout today. My back and knees want me to know that I may not have 5 miles in me tomorrow.
I stopped in a sunny place on the trail and studied the newly-exposed flattened grass. My gaze wandered to the shagbark hickory, white oak, birch - each with their own bark pattern and shape. I could spend hours just looking at the shapes and colors. Is this piece of Planet Earth any less sacred than Jerusalem? Who decides which places are sacred?
A feel-good day in winter doesn’t happen often. It’s a gift and I am grateful to have control over my time on days like this.
That’s a good thing right now, because my whole online, virtual existence is still taking shape and the only way I can sort it all out is when I’m in the woods.
I’m seriously “immersed-in-the-woods” deprived. I need a few days, if not a few weeks with a whole lot less 21st Century technology and a whole lot more of what God created in the first six days, (if you subscribe to the “Seed of Abraham,” creation story.)
I think about good locations for a deep woods experience. Any place with easy parking is not an option. I have a short list of where I want to disappear. But the days need to get a bit longer in order for me to think about overnight without adequate shelter.
I wonder, is it cheating to write in my journal and come out of the woods days or weeks later and put those words in my blog?