We Took to the Woods

Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness. 
- Psalm 55.6-7

A compilation of our many hikes. A few of them we do every year, a few others were new to me. 
We visited a 400 year old tree. A tulip poplar. When I thought about how it was around in the 1600's, it brought a whole sense of wonder and fascination with the age of the living woods. We hiked to waterfalls and listened to the cold water rushing over the edge and crashing below. The constant change of waterfalls is amazing, too. The water is eroding the rocks and reshaping the land every moment.

We took to the woods, drank deeply of the fresh air, and listened to the mountains sing all around us.

The trees are so tall here. They have room to grow upwards. They sway and bend with the wind. The sunlight penetrates through the leaves creating a perfect dappled light.

The birds are awake and the woods are dense. Green is abundant. Green is on the limbs of trees. Mossy rocks. The trees have grown here for a long time. The air has a sense of age that you can breathe when you walk into the woods. Tales of history and stories dwell here, and the deeper you go, the more the imagination runs into possibly myths of the ancient days when woodland elves roamed these moss covered landscapes. The skyward looking trees towering above them even in those young days. Now these woods are old, and we got to walk the trails among beautiful sights.

The light and layers of green shift with the breezes above the tops of the woods. The leaves gently fall, soft and moist from the rains of summer. 

In my imagination, these are the places of beauty and simplicity. A loveliness of old. A story still moving, but steeped in the past.