It was that morning in October, the one after a night of heavy rain and strong wind that knocked down the leaves and now the bare branches looked more like November and it was no longer possible to think that somehow the warm days of October might go on forever. As I walked across my yard in the dim, gray, pre-dawn light I saw the gray-black, skeletal silhouettes of ash and maple trees, silent forest sentinels that would have to…
As the day designated for my surgery loomed steadily closer thoughts arose; in bad moments anxious scenarios of death, disability and disfigurement; in calmer moments practical concerns about all that needed to be done to prepare for the operation that would require a long incision across my neck. One morning, ten days out from surgery, my mind jumped past the surgery to the recovery process. I saw myself immersed in an image of all the plant and animal life surrounding…
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Prologue I made my promise suddenly at the end of an hour long sit spot on a windy, bitterly cold January afternoon. Surrounded by brown and gray, dead and dormant winter trees I felt a need to see the symmetry of the seasons. I promised to return during the first week of June when the forest was reborn,…