I TOOK A WALK TODAY...

A couple times a week, I take my dog, Cyon, offsite to one of several dog-interesting destinations. Sometimes to a park, sometimes a parking lot (if there are other dogs who leave their calling cards), and sometimes to a friend’s property nearby. It was so uncharacteristically balmy for a January day, I decided to take a walk at a wildlife area that has a large marsh pond. 

As I drove towards the parking lot, the view revealed something I’d never seen it before. Hovering above the entire 150-acre pond was a thick, pale blue-gray mist. Driving to the edge of the water, I saw that the mist spilled over the banks, enveloping dry vegetation at the edges and all the trees beyond the banks.  Since I was the only one there, I let the dog off-leash to enjoy her recreational sniffing. 

Warm air moving over the partially frozen pond created trillions of tiny water droplets stitched together to make its misty covering. An overcast day turned almost every vista into a black & white photo. The whole scene had a magical feel. As we walked on the path that encircles the pond, I experienced that strange phenomenon of seeing the thick mist ahead of me and behind me but never where I was. I kept wanting to “enter” the fog. I kept waiting for Cyon to vanish in the density of it. But the mist was always only ahead. Always only behind. Always invisibly surrounding us. 

This made me think of all things Divine; the Spirit that somehow mysteriously inhabits this life. Often it is only when I look back that I recognize divine guidance or gracious transformations in matters of my soul. Other times, hope, surrender, and trust allow me to smile at the future. But in the present, where I stand on any given day, with its responsibilities, stresses, and my own weaknesses, I forget that the spiritual cloud encases me - full of the Loving Energy of Creation and those who love me still but are gone. I know they are there. I ask for their guidance and wisdom. I often wonder how far back the ancestral guidance goes. Does it extend to family I never met or even know existed? I will know one day. 

We turned to head back to the car when the scents that had been captivating Cyon ran out. The mist also began to thin out and fade, sunlight finally punched through the thick clouds overhead. Sometimes taking a walk can be a spiritual experience and balm to the soul. 

Actually…all the time. 

I TOOK A WALK TODAY

WONDERING

Much rain and the first December cold snap

left waters overflowing and glazed slick,
on this day when the sun, like a stranger,
finally showed its firey face from dawn to dusk. 

 

The frozen marsh, dotted with flotsam and jetsam,
jutting trunks and faraway ducks, reflects the sky,
recently laundered and spread tight like a plain, blue sheet.

Life and death suspended together and locked in
at the edge of these icy waters. And I wonder
how Life does its miraculous carrying-on
under this thick, glass ceiling, under the cold mud,
under the rotting logs half-submerged. 

Only oak and beech trees rustle their leafy instruments,
hailing me alone down a trail of surrendered leaves.
The historical marker tells me this wetland
was once a fur trading business. And I wonder
how different it was before all that blood and commerce.

Up ahead, cardinals drinking from melting puddles
are like fallen clusters of ripened fruit. And I wonder
how something so vivid and beautiful can so often
be taken for granted, flying around our yards
and picking at the salt by the side of the road.

And the two brilliant bluebirds, so out of place
in this brown and gray landscape,
yet so perfectly placed for me to see. And I wonder
who tells these delicate, feather-painted creatures
to stay for the harshness of winter months.