A Walk in a Snowglobe

Crunching along on the trail, my ice walkers strapped to my running shoes, I am blissfully unaware of anything else going on in the world. I am surrounded. Surrounded by nature’s beauty, peacefulness, and stillness, I continue to walk briskly. I should be in church…it is Sunday morning after all. Funny though…I feel closer to my God here in the woods, than I ever could feel in a church…built by man. The woods were put here by God and nature for all to enjoy. Here, there is no ‘one religion’, a woods for all…to enjoy. But I digress. This is not about going to church or religion.


I look up…there is not a breath of air, but every now and again a brief puff of wind blows through the trees, scattering the fluffy snow…like blowing on a dandelion that has gone to seed. The soft white tufts of snow float in a zigzag pattern toward my face…like someone picking up a snowglobe…one minute the air is clear…the next minute… the flakes are scattering about…after a good shake. I breathe deeply…frost makes my nostrils stick together…I am working up a good sweat…life is good.

I stop for a nanosecond to rest…on a bridge…that has a half frozen pond on one side. The water from the river is rising…it will soon be high tide…and the tide is rushing in and over the frozen glaze. The sound of water rushing is so soothing…and familiar…a gift in the dead of winter. Black ducks and one lone Mallard paddle about on the other side of the river… like decoys. The many shades of grey are punctuated by flashes of color here and there. A lime green cottage now visible through the trees…that have shed their summer foliage; the puce wooden boards on the bridge’s safety rail; the blue snow racer that holds a child being towed down the trail by a willing Dad; the colors stand out like blinking lights.

I love the woods. All my life I associated the woods with life…the woods were a gift from God that kept on giving. The only sound missing today…was the sound of my father’s power saw…and the snorting and pawing of his horse’s hooves as he impatiently waited…for the return trip home.