Stony Brook

Do you have a place that you imagine when you are trying to find calm?  When you want to channel all that is right with the world, or just a feeling of deep peace? I used to always imagine an open hilltop in Canada or a cozy cabin on a lake with a familiar mountain view.  I still think about those places but have come to realize that a little brook in the woods within walking distance of my house has nestled itself deep into my soul.

I have walked the woodland path to get there for over thirty years now.  I first walked it with a boyfriend who I eventually married.  I walked it with my mother.  I walked it with a baby in a backpack, and then another.  I have walked it with  small children who spent hours just playing at the side of this stream, watching, collecting things and getting very wet.  And there has always been a dog with us who swims  no matter how cold the water and leaps up onto the board walk and shakes a spray of water all over anyone who is close by.

The path to get here is a tough one to do in the snow.  Ice forms and the footing is slippery, so I walk on the roads in snowy weather and then graduate to open fields where snow melts first.

On Sunday, I returned to the woods with the wonderful feeling of being BACK!  Back to the soft pine needles under foot, back to the towering pines overhead, back to the little bridge over Stony Brook free of ice now.  Back to the glittering waters of Beaver Pond visible through the trees.  This may be one of the best things about the change of seasons; to take your cue from the natural world. To pay attention.