We’ve not had much snow this winter. Wednesday morning, with the first snow of 2023, Chance and I headed out to one of our favorite trails. With no one else on the path, Chance was off leash running and fully exercising his Alaskan Eskimo dog genes. We both stopped when a large group of Canada Geese gaggled through the quiet of the snow.
Salt Creek, Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve
I was listening to a podcast of a meditation on mystic Thomas Merton. An early biography of him is titled The Man in the Sycamore Tree, which itself is a reference to the story of Zacchaeus, a short man, who climbed a Sycamore tree to see Jesus who was walking through Jericho. On this path was a Sycamore tree towering over all the others, which I always forget is there until I come upon it. I’ve photographed it in many seasons, and say hello before heading further down the trail.
* * *
Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.
From It Was Early, Mary Oliver 2009
American Sycamore, Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve, DuPage County, Illinois