The trail peaked out this morning at a point along the stream that compelled me to stop. To stop and look at what lay before me. To listen...to the sound quietly filling the air around me. To take something in that had been just sitting there, almost waiting for my presence to observe it. Not for my sake, but for its own.
But it ended up being for my sake, too. I noticed the tiny little berries, red and Christmas-bulb-like dangling from the twigs now surrounding my head. They lit themselves against the background of that unspeakably beautiful mix of snow and wood in the forest behind them. I slowly counted...realizing as I did, that the stream had joined the scene with the most complementary sounds. Its water was positively 'twinkling' as I observed its 'mini-light' friends. What a wonderful idea, I thought. Who made all this? And, why? The latter didn't matter, I was just thrilled to again take it in. The sound of visual...in the form of a twinkle.
I'm glad I stopped...or that it stopped me.
