seeing the trees in the forest

“Can’t see the forest for the trees…”
This cliché expression I’ve heard and used for many years
And yet today it seems so backwards
When applied to the actual forest I’ve seen my whole life.

I’ve always seen the forest. That’s a given.
It’s the many different species of trees that I missed.
Now I think about the importance of saying
“Can’t see the trees in the forest…”

Perhaps in part it is about seeing glimpses
The way we experience images passing by as we travel
Here one moment, gone the next
The details don’t register, just the outlines.

Sometimes it is a moment frozen in time
Like seeing the children in the midst of their game
An action snapshot touching on a memory
Voiceless except for the sounds we imagine.

Today hiking the woodland trail enjoying the great beauty
And enjoying my daughter delighting in the place
I heard a child’s voice in the group following us
Happy and excited to discover this path.

I like hearing that sound and my daughter, too.
We did not come here for solitude.
We came on a Sunday to embrace nature
In a way that is a very human sensibility.

My daughter goes ahead and then waits for me.
She finds a large rock to lie upon
Looking up at the tree canopy above.
When I catch up she is marveling at the sight.

Again she goes ahead then stops to look at a tree.
As I come up she shows me the backlighting on the branches.
She sees the feathery translucent image shimmering there
And I realize I am with someone who really sees the trees in the forest.

I am amazed the way she traverses the path looking up
While my eyes are so much trained to look down.
I wonder if this is a female way of looking
Since I am seeing double seeing my daughter see like this.

I was going to make this hike with my true love,
She who knows the trees so well.
It’s like she has come along with us in my daughter.
Another day we will walk this path the three of us.

mianus river gorge

mums rainbow

blowing in the wind

Watching the tree branches swaying out the window,
The fall weather chill is blowing its way into our lives.
The maples are turning, too soon all the trees will be stripped bare.
The wind begins to pluck the leaves and litter the ground below.

Already the nights are longer than the days.
The dark season is arriving, the bitter cold will follow.
Most mammals in this northern clime will hibernate.
The trees in their way hibernate, too.

Autumn is gorgeous. Winter has a crystalline beauty.
But a cold house makes for cold bones
And a retreat to huddling under extra covers
And an interminable wait for the spring thaw.

Today is beautiful, seeing the light and shadow.
Let me enjoy what is given to us.
When the season advances this year
I will have the inner warmth of a loved companion.

Call it the indoors season, the heating season,
The time when we survive because we have our human habitat.
There’s nothing melancholy about that.
We can bundle up and make forays out and about.

It begins today. I put on an extra layer and go out into the day
Taking full advantage of what daylight hours the retreating sun gives.
Soon the days of red cheeks and cold hands will be upon us.
The welcome hiss of steam heat will comfort us.