Making It Up As I Go Along #672

Broke out the snowshoes this week.  It was nice to get out on them again.  They haven’t been needed to go walking in the woods, as there’s a well beaten trail of hard packed snow.  But they’ve been good for letting me go where I please.  And I went to the furthest trails that bring you fairly close to Innes Road and the businesses there (within a five to ten minute walk to those parking lots).

It was nice to get out in the winter stillness.  To see tracks of coyotes, fox, turkeys and rabbits.  You realize how much is out here that you simply never see.  In two snowshoes and dozens of winter walks, I haven’t seen any of these animals… but the tracks don’t lie.  And, in fact, the turkeys have been following me.  In the time between my first and second snowshoe (a day), I notice many turkey tracks using my snowshoe trail as a means to get around.

Something I think I’m starting to learn from the internet.  When you are constantly taking issue/ complaining/shouting foul, your shouts become internet white noise.  Even people who may agree with your point of view may simply stop listening.

The internet is a great place to spout off… I’m not sure how good a place it is for actual conversation on a matter.

Something else I’m learning from the internet and from simple life experience… it’s often alright to not agree with someone.  As long as the points of view are shared with respect and civility, there’s no reason to get angry with someone who doesn’t see the world the way you do.

In this day and age of instant access via social media, it seems like our greatest desire isn’t to understand… but to become angry.  The social media generation is a generation that strives to be pissed off.

That all said, it hasn’t been a good week of happy news in the world.  And what Trump is doing disturbs me greatly.  But I’m just getting to a point where I don’t think I need to share every twitch of anger that stirs within me.  I don’t want to make my passions and convictions into somebody else’s white noise.

So… with that… it’s snowshoe time…

Scuba Snowshoes
If a winter hike is as a swim
Then snowshoes add scuba
Allowing you the freedom
From the surface trails
Where you can dive deep
Through the powdered surface
Into the wooded reefs.

Replace the scuba bubbles
With the swoosh-chunk of snowshoed steps
Snowbound saplings are winter kelp
Snowy downed trees in place of corals
Schools of Chickadees scatter as you near
You keep an eye out for sharkish coyotes
While Clownfish woodpeckers chatter to each other
Wondering why you’re drifting through their sea

And when your underwoods exploration ends
You burst out to the surface of hard packed trail
And breaststroke home
Until you reach your driveway beach
And wearily pull off your fins and tank
Before climbing into the boat of home
Tired, but energized
By the freedom snowshoes bring.