As I was walking through the woods surrounding Moose Bog earlier this week, I realized how alive this remarkable place was even in the melting snow of late winter.
I "know" these creatures by name but what do I really know about them? And even given what I know of them, what have I done in my own life with that knowing?
Of course many would call it desolate, but the difference between desolate and alive is huge. The parking lot in front of Shaws grocery store, one of the least desolate places in my town, is also, one of the least alive. Actually, let’s be honest and just call is one of the most dead!
Much of the vegetation of the boreal forest surrounding the Bog is certainly something even I would call weird. That is, however, primarily a measure of how much I’m a human wrapped in my own small self, both ignoring and ignorant of so much of the rest of life. Life is weird!
Who is this creature? What do we know of it's life? What can we learn from it?
A "neighbor" of the creature pictured above, as uniquely different as any two neighbors yet both part of life. Such diversity is what makes life so resilient, isn't it?
I’ll leave for another day the naming of these “creatures” (as our dear old friend Norma often referred to many living things) and for now only revel in their remarkable variety and, when I really am seeing, their stunning beauty.
Such beauty of form, even in late winter!
Dead? Desolate? I think not!
Still Learning To See 
So hopefully I can post now, since I went to the library site and logged in (the only time I use wordpress!)
I love your sense of the cycles of life–Taoism makes the most sense of any philosophy to me, although silence is my choice in the face of these mysteries. Nothing ever really dies–Mama Nature is the best recycler 🙂 As Joni Mitchell pointed out in “Big Yellow Taxi”, it’s HUMANS who “pave paradise/ put up a parking lot”. I always smile when I see little plants breaking through the thickest concrete or blacktop!
Always grateful for your comments and insights. Thank you!