Thursday, October 09, 2014

Listening in Idaho

Returning to city life after living three months in a National Forest, it is bittersweet to look back through journal entries from my summer working for the Forest Service.  This entry, scrawled in faded pencil on tattered parchment, comes from September 10th, 2014, two days before my assignment ended:

"Reflecting back and remembering some important things before I leave Idaho.  I saw a wolverine and a black bear in the same day-- encountering an aliveneness that I want to always be in touch with.  I climbed a mountain and was humbled to discover how inexpressible it was.

Taken during my hike to Custer Lookout, Salmon-Challis National Forest; Idaho.


And this aliveness and impossible expression is out here, away from the cities, and it is where I want and need to keep connected to.  It is out here that I see the largeness, feel the expansiveness of things, free from the moorings of category, compartments, all creating new understandings.  Because it is out here where things really speak to each other."

Thank you, mountains of Idaho, and all the lovely things that live and breathe with you.

--GR