through a lens

There is something about the woods

When you are walking or hiking through them...

especially the woods in Maine

as you trod on the carpety floor of the forest...

your senses are enveloped by smells of Balsam and earth 

sounds of chickadees and strangely small squirrels...

There is so much moss, and pine needles about....

cascading over rocks, through and around trees....

padding paths like a really big plushy carpet...

no...

like  a memory foam carpet.....

we rested on this moss "couch" for a bit

and we laughed at how tired we were

and how incredibly soft this mound of moss was beneath us

 this is not moss...

it is lichen

lichen is a cross 

between a fungus and algae

 isn't is beautiful?

 

this one made me smile and laugh....

kinda looks like a frog's mouth doesn't it?

ribbit ribbit

I love how the moss feathers 

like plumage on a bird

around the frog...

hello little clover.....

 lichen and moss

living symbiotically together

hmmm 

i could learn a lot from these guys

 imagine the little feet that scurry every day

across this fairytale passageway

laying down on the forest floor

always gives the best views

this birch tree

and thousands of others i met along the way...

peeled its dead layers so ...

....artistically...

...maybe someday i will be able to do the same

i love how the moss curls around the edge of the bridge

 this is a tree stump

covered in love

moss love

 I am pointing out the different species...

of moss and mushrooms and lichen...

Aidan is being a really good boy...

and paying very close attention...

to every word i am saying

 Aidan says I am a hippie

Mike says i stop too much on the way to the top.....

i reminded him that the mountain top may be his destination...

but the woods....

the moss....

the mushrooms....

were all also a part of mine...

 just look at how this rock is cradled with love by the moss

I am not a hippie

I just love the creation that God made

it can sooth and calm me in ways that no one and no thing can.

When I see the beauty and intricate details of all of these living 

plants and organisms

it makes me think...

somehow...

there is a bigger picture that I cannot see...

things in this world....

like lichen

and moss

and mushrooms

and rocks....

I may never truly understand or know a lot about 

how or why they were made or what they are for....

but I can still see their beauty

and their growth

and their death

and when i see them....

I know that someone else set it all in motion...

some ones else is in charge

someone else gives life

and someone else takes it away...

and believe it or not....

when I am looking through a lens

at the moss

and the lichen

and the roots and stumps

or any part of nature for that matter....

i can see clearer...

life is softer

and more simple

and i don't need to understand it all

and it eases me