Stillness ~1

Stillness

Electrifying was not the word I would have used for the magnificent scene below me. Grand. Awesome. Even the much overused word amazing. Watching the rolling mist crawling  up the mountain side, threading and weaving it’s way through old growth forest green was a scene that reminded me of prairie clouds pushing their way across the land. The sky had always fascinated me. It’s very blueness and broadness. But when the clouds began their silent march from a very distant horizon to cover and hover over everything, I was transfixed.

Jim and I stood frozen to our skis, clutching our poles and breathed in the stillness. A stillness that matched the trees around us pillowed with the snows of yesterday and yesterday. We both knew the science behind the winter mists in the mountains. Arctic air. Moisture from warmer areas trapped in valleys. Blah, blah, blah. Only in pencilled side notes of the oldest dog-eared texts were there hints that there was something much more. Something so very soul stopping that wordy description failed. The glistening silence was broken by an eagle soaring higher than mountain tops and clouds. And then another sound interfered. My growling stomach. Accepting that our basic needs could pull us more strongly than the glory around us was difficult but necessary.

Whispering as quietly as possible, I breathed 'Jim' 

‘Shh’

Still whispering I said. 'It’s lunchtime. Let’s eat.'

“When there is silence one finds 

the anchor of the universe within oneself.”

~ Lao Tzu