This morning I walked forever (really it was only 8.3 miles, but damn did it ever feel like we walked to the other side of the forest, though the trees never seemed to end). Mom was in rare form and lead us off trail, then back on again. We ended up with pups that wanted to lay down and take a nap … until we made our way to the lake where they went for a swim. When we were headed to the lake, we ended up off trail (again), wandering through this stand of pines that the county planted. All of them in these neat and tidy rows, like sentries standing guard. At the heart of all these pines was a solitary majestic oak. It took my breath away when we wandered up on it. Giant, almost magical with it’s branches draped in spanish moss. Arms reaching out far beyond what I would typically assume would be an oak’s limits of it’s span. And standing there beneath it all I felt like I was seeing something older than anything made by the hands of man around here. I stood there a minute contemplating all it had withstood, hurricanes and fires and lightning and bulldozers that couldn’t bring it down. Surrounded by not the natural forest, but something designed by us, yet there it stands, strong and far larger than anything in it’s immediate area. It was awe inspiring. Mother nature is amazing. If it weren’t for the unruly dogs wanting to move on, I would have snapped a picture of it (and later in our hike the giant rattle snake we watched lazily make it’s way across the trail), but the girls aren’t quite ready for me to pull out the phone and snap pictures of anything. I hope one day to wander under that tree again and get a picture out it, but for now you’ll just have to take my word for how cool it was. Okay, I’m signing off for the night. Sorry for the lack of visual stimulation this evening, by the time we got back to the car the dogs weren’t the only things that wanted to collapse.
Currently listening to: Like Real People Do by Hozier
