“I’m sure many of us have the experience of our friends & family leaving Vermont in March, while we stick around. Curiosity about how March will play out, or sugaring, seems sewn into my constitution at this point, and it would take a lot to lure me out. But I have to work for it. My happiness, that is. I can’t just sit in place, while this is going on. The tendency to hate on myself & my limitations, flares up when those close to me shove off to far flung places, no matter how blasé & chipper I may appear on the exterior. I’ve practiced that, because, of course, from the bottom of my heart, I wish them well. However, emotional retaliation, in its healthiest forms, can yield amazing results. Which is why I left the house early this morning, to follow the movement of the sun, breaking along the river road. I had a few earmarked spots in mind. It’s a luxury to be able to get out, and drive, for so many reasons. In a truck, it hits a sweet spot, and besides that, I almost got stuck turning around in a pull off, but had no trouble once my 4 wheel drive was engaged. I’d soon jumped the guardrail, & was heading towards the water, and shafts of light, that don’t come later in the day. Concentrating on my footing, & feeling a bit wobbly, I finally stabilized my body enough to shoot. I flashed on the waders I’d been looking at, in the Patagonia catalog. Though no fisherman, my desire to walk streams follows me from the dreamtime. This day, with my people gone south to heat, and the bright colors of a vibrant spring below the Mason Dixon line, I would also, find colors. The colors that proliferate in Vermont, before anything is really in bloom. In tiny bursts of bright water, along with what has stayed green, despite months of snow, like moss. And a breakfast rainbow, born of mist, and melt, and rays of crackling white, that pierce thru the spruces & hemlocks, to hit the river. An impulse, I would surely like to take home, and make my own. I went from there, to a wilderness area parking lot, and followed an old road into a beaver pond I’d seen on a map. That’s a whole “another” set of photos that blew my mind, which I will share later. The outdoors makes you want to share the beauty you find, with the ones you love. And I love you, I really do. We who are here now, can open doors in the woods, not for adventure sports, or conquest, but fo subtle gathering of ancient information. Slabs of rock, contours of earth, old, old trees. They still live among us. And when our friends and family go away, they may be our only connection, to sanity.”
