Leaf

So I did go out into the woods yesterday, and it was truly wonderful. The best word I came up with was “astonishing.” I started out, and thought how easy it was, how foolish I had been to think that this was so difficult, and I had a wonderful time. I was very glad, tho, that I had thought to bring the walking stick that Ben had made for me, because I stepped into some sort of sinkhole, and sunk to my hip, and were it not for the stick, I’d be there still. The snow was easily 3 feet deep, beyond the reach of my arm.

I found that all my familiar landmarks were gone, so my goal of the bench in the Peace Garden was not to be, and when I noticed the land begin to fall away down the hill, I realized I had way overshot the garden, and it was then that I started to feel a little tired, and the thought occurred to me that maybe it had been a mistake to come this far out into the woods. The walk back was like climbing Mt. Everest – one step, stop to rest, another step, stop to rest, with occasional longer pauses to try to flex my sore back. Then I saw the house, and eventually made it to the back steps, got the snowshoes off, the boots off,(best boots in the world!) and crawled thru the door to sprawl on a chair.

It was hugely exhausting “walk,” but well worth it for the experience of such a magical place. It was discouraging only in that it was so exhausting. And tho I implored my family to go out and see for themselves, none of them did. Too bad.

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