New Year's Day...

The one day I could sleep in and I forgot to turn off my alarm. Damn!

4AM comes early.

Too early.

My bladder was ready — Chewie and Finn too — but the rest of me wasn’t so I took care of business and crawled back into bed — slept until 7AM, fed and walked the dogs, then decided to get out into the woods.

I left a sleeping house, drove north toward Mom and Dad’s and pulled over just south of the reservoir — a spot I’d seen many times before and decided this was the day I’d check it out.

A fire trail.

It started off wide and then narrowed and split the further I went. Fallen trees and briars greeted me along the way. I kept snaking to the left to ensure I could just stay to the right to find my way back.

It led me to the water.

I sat down on a rock and listened to the water lapping — every now and again I’d see or hear some geese — the sound of the road off in the distance.

Me.

Nature.

And my interior monologue.

We sat together for 20 minutes or so.

Me, listening and looking — to everything and nothing simultaneously. No answers came.

As I got up to leave and turned around, my shadow stretched out and split the scene down the middle. I saw myself as a part of the whole.

I made this frame and spoke a little promise…

…’Do this more’

And the wild responded ‘We’ll save your seat’.