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The transition of fall to winter is part of every Michigander's life and those who cannot embrace the coming deep-freeze will have no choice but to wallow in misery for the next five months or so. This is the mentality that has always caused me to overly welcome the inevitable winter. This wasn't much of a stretch for me when I was growing up because I have always been one of the most fair skinned people I know and "fun-in-the-sun" usually meant: "burn & sweat-in-the-heat". This last year, however, I've had several occasions where sitting alone reading Orson Scott Card , under the sun, out in a natural setting was an incredible sensation. Not that I couldn't appreciate nature prior to this last fall but it wasn't until recently that I felt that it was becoming a part of who I was, becoming something that was no longer arbitrary but necessary. This feeling drove me to find secluded spots that no one knew about where I could be alone for miles. One place in particular is located within a park that I like to frequent. It's off the path, quite a ways, and you have to push through an intertwined network of vine-like branches only to find an inordinate level of thorn-bearing underbrush. When I hit this barrier for the first time I remember thinking: "it's ok forest, I'll bear the slashes of your guardians, I'll continue, and I trust that once I have pressed deeply enough to gain your respect, you will show me a sanctuary. You will reveal to me the place that is your core, your very heart." After several minutes of feeling as though the thorns would go on for miles I reached a clearing. This was it, I had trusted the wild and it had granted me sanctuary. I could have turned back at any point. Even when I was a foot outside the clearing I could not see into it. I could not see it coming. If I had turned back I would never have found that the very place I was looking for not only existed, but was right in front of me. I felt like I had just passed a test, just been told a secret. The clearing was covered with knee-high grasses surrounded by a fortress of large trees and a mesh of underbrush. There was a fallen tree in the middle of the clearing and when the wind blew across the grass I felt like I was standing in a shallow lake, and the fallen tree was as driftwood. The whole seen really gave me pause. I sat on one of the larger branches on the fallen tree and just stared for a moment, letting my eyes unfocus, and getting that feeling of pristine stillness that I had so longed for. It was only after a few moments of delight that the piercing realization struck me that winter was coming. Why must snow cover everything I could see so soon after I had discovered this place. how soon would the flowing grass be frozen solid. how long until this place revealed nothing to me but cold and death. For the first time in my life I truly dreaded the seasonal transition.
Posts: 484 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Yeah ... trying like heck to leave! As soon as my house sells I will kiss the mitten goodbye! Michelle
Posts: 152 | Registered: Jul 2004
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This really should be on the other side... We're not scary over there. Really. Posting something like this would be a good way to introduce yourself. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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, under the sun, out in a natural setting was an incredible sensation. Not that I couldn't appreciate nature prior to this last fall but it wasn't until recently that I felt that it was becoming a part of who I was, becoming something that was no longer arbitrary but necessary. This feeling drove me to find secluded spots that no one knew about where I could be alone for miles. One place in particular is located within a park that I like to frequent. It's off the path, quite a ways, and you have to push through an intertwined network of vine-like branches only to find an inordinate level of thorn-bearing underbrush. When I hit this barrier for the first time I remember thinking: "it's ok forest, I'll bear the slashes of your guardians, I'll continue, and I trust that once I have pressed deeply enough to gain your respect, you will show me a sanctuary. You will reveal to me the place that is your core, your very heart." After several minutes of feeling as though the thorns would go on for miles I reached a clearing. This was it, I had trusted the wild and it had granted me sanctuary. I could have turned back at any point. Even when I was a foot outside the clearing I could not see into it. I could not see it coming. If I had turned back I would never have found that the very place I was looking for not only existed, but was right in front of me. I felt like I had just passed a test, just been told a secret. The clearing was covered with knee-high grasses surrounded by a fortress of large trees and a mesh of underbrush. There was a fallen tree in the middle of the clearing and when the wind blew across the grass I felt like I was standing in a shallow lake, and the fallen tree was as driftwood. The whole seen really gave me pause. I sat on one of the larger branches on the fallen tree and just stared for a moment, letting my eyes unfocus, and getting that feeling of pristine stillness that I had so longed for. It was only after a few moments of delight that the piercing realization struck me that winter was coming. Why must snow cover everything I could see so soon after I had discovered this place. how soon would the flowing grass be frozen solid. how long until this place revealed nothing to me but cold and death. For the first time in my life I truly dreaded the seasonal transition.
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