returning

I have not written in a very long time. Life happens, so I can just let that go. But I have taken a trip to the west and for reasons not to be discussed here I am now feeling the need to write. I need to find something to ground me, so I think that if I decide to write, maybe I will pay attention more closely again and find that I can have this mix of flight and being grounded at the same time. So I hope to continue, to write about what I see and feel around me, and to pay attention to nature and what keeps me.

Last night, it snowed a gentle quiet snow. It was, just a little, but enough to make the world fresh and white.

Right now, I have the luxury, or maybe the impetus, of dog sitting again. Having another creature to tend, take out to the bathroom, to exercise gives me an added push to get out, where I might instead have chosen to stay in and drink another cup of coffee.
We were out at 7:30 this morning; walking half the loop. The sun was rising over the stand of pines on the other side of the river. Tracks galore, they tell a story as beautifully as braille or the dots and dashes of a telegraph wire, only I do not know the language. I know that I followed the snow shoe hare--two dots two dashes, and the mouse-- long line paralleled on either side by repeating dots. I think I saw a coyote--claws on the toes. I continue to look for signs of the neighboring bobcat, and occasionally I think I see its tracks, maybe even this morning.

I followed the river west so the sun was behind me. Sporadically the breeze puffed snow off the branches, but it wasn’t until I turned east again that I witnessed the gossamer flight of snowy eldils reflecting their spirit voices in a silver hue.