Flow like water

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.

A. A. Milne

a path of water

i slip through forest

following a stream bed,

halting in the deep pools

encircled by carved rock.

Seemingly still on the surface

i slip invisibly underneath

until at the edge

I tumble

crashing thunderously

to the stony basin below

where I pause again -

briefly-

and then flow on.

November 12, 2022 Pipestem Resort State Park River Trail

I ran 8 miles on the rugged hilly mountain trails in the morning, following the river trail. Cool and wet, solitary running. It was muddy and slippery, so I had to watch my footing; to be fully present; minding the path, looking for the trail blazes, keeping all senses engaged.

I heard the water moving before I saw it. I stopped and slogged through the mud to watch it swirling and gathering, pooling and falling. Just flowing on and on, going about its way - to what end I don’t know. But I love to watch it go.

November 20, 2022 I was supposed to be home two days ago, but the weather at home is treacherous with heavy snow and wind, so I had to extend my trip. I landed here; at Prophetstown State Park in Indiana.

In the morning, the sun came up bright and clear so I decided to get out for a run through the grassland trails, through the marshes and pools. Such different terrain than the mountains of West Virginia. The water more still, actually frozen in places, was like mirror glass reflecting trees and flying birds and sky and making me feel almost lucky I got delayed so I could find this unexpected beauty.

I look forward to returning home for Thanksgiving where I will gather with my husband, neighbors, friends and family, but I am grateful too for these precious moments of solitude and reflection.

I will share more pictures from this trip over the next few weeks For now, I will say Happy Thanksgiving! May gratitude free you from worry, and gathering with people you love fill you with joy.

Traveling

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

J.R.R. Tolkien

November 17,2022

I’ve been traveling through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina this week. Seeing old friends and new places. I have limited access where I am, but I am excited to share some of the experiences I had and places I saw next week when I am back in civilization.

November 9 Moon Landing

The Company of other Creatures

Let us remember with humility the loneliness of being man in a universe we do not understand and the vulnerability of the human condition. The animals could do very well without us, but we cannot do without them.

Gerald Carson

November 9, 2022 - out on a limb

Hiking Alone in the Woods

(or - 6 Stops on Pokagon State Park’s Hell’s Point Challenge Hike)

#! Woodpecker hammered

in the dead wood

searching for bugs,

#2 Chipmunk shuffled

through the leaves,

chittering,

#3 Squirrel scrambled noisily

up a tree

stopping on a high branch

to eat,

#4 Ailing raccoon-

too ill to run away,

lay still on a log

eyeing me warily,

#5 Crow flew past,

pausing in the sweet gum

calling and drawing

my eye,

#6 Dragonfly

landed lightly on my shoulder.

and my lonely hike

was over.

November 9, 2022 - Something is wrong

The hike I went on was called “Hell’s Point Challenge”. It’s an 8+ mile hike through Pokagon State Park in Indiana. Along the way, you’re supposed to take a picture of each of 6 various sights in the park, a bridge, a spring, a lake, a wetland view, the dams and Hell’s Point itself. I did all that, but I was really thinking about all the animals i encountered on the hike, and how they make me feel connected to a place even more than the sights.

November 9, 2022 - Crow in Sweet Gum Tree

November 9, 2022 - Red Dragon

Couldn’t resist one last picture of a squirrel…it was so healthy and curious and literally standing up and looking right at me.

November 9, 2022 - A squirrel giving me a questioning look

November 6, 2022 - A lost goat stands precariously on a retaining wall over the collapsing bluff

November 6, 2022. A little black goat escaped from his owner and ended up over four miles from home, choosing a broken stairway and a collapsing retaining wall as her temporary shelter. Here she is standing on a wooden beam on the edge of the bluff. It doesn’t look so steep from this image, but the drop off from where she’s standing is significant. In the picture below, you can see that even she is wary of going straight down.

November 6, 2022 - Looking down at the bluff

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November 6, 2022 - Safe and warm

I found the owner by using a couple of community groups on Facebook, but even he wasn’t sure how to retrieve her from the bluff. My neighbors and I, and the owner and a few of his friends all worked together to eventually steer her to a set of good stairs where we managed block her from the top and bottom and get a leash over her head, wrap her in a blanket and carry her to safety. I realized how much we all felt the need to save this sweet animal. How much it meant to us to get her back to her owner who was really upset over losing her. I love my neighbors for all the effort they put into this; but it makes me realize that the quote at the beginning of this post is really true. We need animals more than they need us.

I’m on the road now, and this is a somewhat hurried post; but the experience of “rescuing” the goat is what got me thinking about all of the animals I see and hear while I’m out hiking - not just the landscape views. I would really be a lonely hike in the woods without the other creatures.