Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Taking a deep breath...

After almost six months of enduring an insane schedule, I'm finally at a point where I can sit back and relax, take a deep breath... and find myself again. Right now I'm welcoming some much needed sleep, the feel of the breeze in my hair, and following the moving songs of resident and migrant birds. This is what has been missing in my life lately, the peace of nature. Speaking of which, I have a date at a nature center with two permanently disabled raptors, a Barred owl and a Merlin. I am usually their care giver each Sunday, but I've added Wednesday to the schedule for a while as I ease back into some kind of routine. So, when I return...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The darkness bites into me, crisp and enveloping, clarifying as only such a winter's night can be. I turn my face skyward to catch softly drifting flakes of snow, aglow with hidden moonlight, in no hurry to reach a resting place. The velvety crystals brush against me, cling to me, melt into me. I am infused with the peace of their wanderings, the intensity of their night, the eternal cycle.

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In another time, another place, I sat huddled in a similar night. The blue-white expanse of a broad valley stretched before me, connecting me like a lifeline to the mountains beyond. Coyotes called from one side of the valley to the other, their cries a plaintive echoing that hung for a moment before drifting off into the frigid air.

The night, the snow-coated winter, the calls and silences of the wild... all live inside of me.