Stone walls

Today was overcast, raw, breezy, about 40F. For those of us hanging by our fingertips waiting for relief from the cold and snow, it was another testing delay. Yet out on the usual evening walk on the town trail, the dim light, leafless trees and muddy ground were the perfect backdrop to highlight the vivid green moss coming to life on the rocks of the stone walls. I noticed it just as I was about to step over one. See, this particular stone wall is usually just a barrier to getting to where I am going. Worse, the stones are often slippery and I usually take a second to make sure I'm leaning forward so I don't slip backward and break my back. But this time, as I picked up my foot I saw GREEN, bright as a shamrock, almost fluorescent in the weak light. And, it was all over, all along the walls. The walls themselves are remarkable. There are meandering grids of walls throughout the 60 to 80 acres in this town forest, as well as throughout all the woods in the area. Some of the walls are 5 feet wide. There are miles of them. They were all built by hand by farmers clearing the land for crops. All these woods were cleared fields at one time - just amazing. So the dreariness of today, the day that made me groan at its mockery of Monday, gave me the gift of seeing treasure. This moment reminded me of a poem in Delwyn's post in her blog, a hazy moon.

All the things we've taken for granted are,

upon reflection,

wonderfully perfect.

It was one of those moments in which you are brought right up against the perfection of things ordinarily taken for granted. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take a photo to share here. Instead, just the view to the West: Almost same view, a few weeks ago, one of the smaller stone walls. While typing this post and listening to The Daily Show, Bruce Springsteen just gave an acoustic performance of a new song, "I'm Working on a Dream." Nice accompaniment to writing!