4.18.16 Beneath us

When you're out in the woods, wandering places that have no paths, you begin to notice the small weighted down resting places, where somebody slept last night. 

You stop and look, see how they went round and around a bit, before they lay down. 
Safely surrounded by the brittle leaves, which provide amplified noise and warning, even when just a squirrel walks on by. 
You stand here, seeing the small green things slowly come up from the earth, pressing their way up through the thick layer of leaves, of Pineneedles.
You look around you, at all of the trees- that are young and healthy and sick and dying. The remarkable mycelium that grow upon the decaying things. The blue waters far down below, of the river's out waters , surrounded by brilliant spring green meadows .
As you walk along, you begin noticing the small homes, all around you , some places rotted out just enough to form a haven for somebody. All the holes in trees that the woodpeckers have created, to feed, now become homes for others, who will nest there. Who will bring forth into the world their own young.
Here today, we are alone. Walking along, seeing the emerging wild blueberry bushes, with their small buds unfurling. Hundreds of Beech of all sizes, with their long cylindrical buds, encased by iridescent silver transparent layers.
The tree frogs far down by the waters call. The early-morning cacophony of all of the avians is over now. As if they greet each other with a great celebration, and then settle down to the business at hand.
Dante uses scent to detect the places where bears have scratched up trees to feed, to score territory.
Where coyote have passed by silently, although most of them now have moved themselves out to their summer homes. Survival is much easier as the weather warms, so they want to be as far from us as possible .
The closer we get to the outwaters, to the steep Ridge, the more celebration there is from the pup. We come upon the small protective wildlife thickets, the rotting stump chipmunk condos . Down further opens up this broad sweep of land that lies far beyond us. Beneath us. A small moment of peace and awe.