Back to the wild

I forgot how quiet the woods are, the kind of quiet where you hear a distant leaf skittering to rest, after letting go and sailing free. This is the quiet where you hear your own thoughts with greatest clarity.


( A mile along the shore of the pond... )

When we arrived at the white blazes that marked the turn onto the Appalachian Trail, we looked at each other and nodded. It was time to test ourselves.

It's hard to describe the feeling. Excitement and fear. Hope and longing. Answers at last to questions I had been asking for a long time. I had been working toward this moment for over eight years. If I made this hike, a gentle 150' rise in elevation over half a mile, I would be there again, in the beautiful wild place shaped by the Goddess' hand.

( up, up, up... )