Random Scribblings...

This is interesting. I was doing a little cleaning up around the disaster zone that is my house and I uncovered this little bit lurking in my backpack. I had completely forgotten about writing it when I was out in the wilderness in early October. It's taken me the last hour or so to decipher my own handrwriting and type it out for all to see...

It's not quite furry, but close enough, perhaps, to be posted here.

...Walking through the predawn gloom of a crisp October morning, the frozen grass and leaves crunching quietly beneath my boots. Trees loom out of the darkness, an indistinct forest of aspens and poplars that is as still and quiet as the autumn air itself. Stars glitter overhead, and I turn my eyes up to the patchwork canopy of branches thrown as shadows against the endless depth of the heavens. My breath hovers in the frosty air for a brief moment and I strain my ears into the silence that lies like a thick blanket over the forest. I breathe deeply, taking in the earthy scent of the leaves and the grasses, the spicy, resinous scent of the trees, and a smile grows on my face...

...The forest thins out, and I find myself standing at the edge of a field, rows of golden stubble stretching out before me. I sit down among the scattered trees and tall golden grasses and wait. The huge expanse of blue-black sky overhead slowly grows yellow and orange at the horizon as the morning approaches. As the light grows, the forest comes alive. Mice and shrews rustle about beneath the blanket of frosted leaves, squeaking quietly to themselves. A more deliberate crunching of leaves makes me turn my head slowly and search for the culprit. A ruffed grouse, grey feathers nearly invisible against the background of closely knit tree trunks, pokes slowly about in search of breakfast...

...The slowly growing light brings the breath of colour to a land of grey. The sun is almost up now, and the light reveals a forest decked out in all of it’s autumn glory. Vivid hues of red, gold, yellow, and even the occasional patch of green stretch out on the rolling hills as far as the eye can see. When the first rays of morning sunlight gently touch the very tops of the surrounding hills, the forest erupts into a spectacular blaze of colour against a sky so blue that it has to be seen to be believed...

...I hear honking in the distance, rolling in and out at the edge of my hearing, a multitude of voices, blending in and out with other in discordant harmony. Black specks appear in the blue sky and resolve themselves into a flock of Canada Geese. They fly directly over me, stretched out in a broad ‘V’ formation, honking enthusiastically as they take south with them the last days of summer. I hear the ‘whoosh’ of their wings, and hear their cries fade out of hearing as they follow a path that leads them ever southward...

...I am so relaxed out here, far from the reaches of civilization. I breathe deeply and a smile creases my face. The accumulated worries and stress created from trying to co-exist with modern society drain away and the tumultuous depths of the city are forgotten. I feel incredibly alive out here among the trees and the hills, more alive than I thought possible. I am a part of this great landscape, I feel it in my bones that this is where I belong. I am a wanderer, an outsider, a man with the soul of a wolf, I understand that now. That is why the quiet beauty of wild places tugs at my soul, and why I have felt that I have never belonged among humankind...

...Looking over my shoulder, I see that I have left the safe, paved road that is the trail of life and entered the tangled underbrush alongside the path. I must make my own trail from here, I see that now. Where it will take me I do not know, but I will follow it faithfully, always wondering what lies over the next hill...