Winter wonderland

(This was a post drafted in January 2011. Time flies. It is now three years later. I am still walking the trails. Here it is--------)

I dreaded when December came, thinking that the nice weather in which I go into nature was about to change.

Four years ago (2009), all I did during the winter was to walk along the main road. At times, it even became too slippery to walk and too freezing cold to be out and about. I did not want to imagine how much worse it must be on the side trails.

I just didn't want the winter to come and disrupt the visit to nature.

December came and then it turned into January. I still go on my walks and love it even more.

Nature turned into a big white wonderland in the dead of winter!! There is something magical about this solitary world of white, the light seems brighter, the senses seem sharper, everything around you seem to give out energy of tranquility and sacred intelligence.

Fewer people to be seen, the ones on the trails are all bundled up. Everyone seems to retreat into their own world of layers of clothings. You become totally self aware walking on the road of silence, even when occasionally another walker passing by.

The year of 2011 has had more snow. I never did leave the lake trails behind, still walking into them every weekend.

Walking in the snow and ice, I had to concentrate totally every step I take. It's just me, the lake, and the icy snowy world. The sense of silence and awareness is overwhelming.

Sitting next to the lake in a snowy morning, moving energy through the body, it is as if the essence of nature running through me, crying for no reason sometimes. This has become intimate and personal experience--me, inner energy, and the nature.

In this vast silence and solitude, miracles and magic are more bound to happen. On the small walk bridge, the mantra "Rebirth in Pure Land" that I had forgotten for 30 years all of a sudden came back to me. Three white tail deer crossed a few yards in front of me like nobody's business a few seconds after I asked for a miracle of some sort. A Canada goose was rescued from the middle of the frozen lake on a Sunday afternoon "sitting dock" froze its bottom half. A hawk grabbed a squirrel from the ground in the middle of the trees and flew off right in front of me.....

In warm weather, a 3 feet long black snake slither right past me while I sit by the water. Fish jumps out of water for nothing. A dozen of birds dip into water from the air repeatedly for quick drinks of water. Three wild turkeys appeared out of nowhere a few yards ahead of me, walking gracefully ......

In this place, being with your own self sometimes get you to weep, for no particular reason.

Tom Murphy hikes alone in Yellowstone all by himself every winter, Richard Proenneke lived in his own cabin in Alaska wilderness by himself for 30 long years---Suddenly I feel like I could be one of these die hard nature lovers. Every time I finish the walk, it is as if I had just come out from another dimension.

I said:"If this is not heaven, what is?"

Nature is home. Nature is temple. Nature is miracle.