There is a certain power...a soul soothing power...in the combination of winter water and ice. It cleanses. It soothes. It heals...
The other morning I decided to visit one of my favorite local waterfalls. It’s not a long hike or even a brutal walk. It’s relatively easy to access...a short walk down the stream and a little boondocking along the steep hillside.
But, I am not athletic. I have two bad knees and some balance problems so my mind struggled with self talk. Could I get there? Would I be injured trying?
I strapped on my ice spikes, winter boots and clothing, and grabbed my camera equipment. And I got there. It took some calculating to find the best path. Sometimes I needed to scramble along the mountainside. Other times, I hung from low lying branches. But I did it.
Once there, I settled in. I listened to the steady sound of the water flowing over the falls. I gazed at the various patterns of the ice and water. Grey river rocks, white snow, green ferns sleeping under the snow along the bedrock.
I walked across the four inches of water flowing downstream over the bedrock and moved back near the falls. I could feel the power of the falls. Mist sprayed around me.
I breathed in. And breathed out. My breathing slowed the longer I stayed. The cares of the world seemed far away along the stream in the bottom of the glade. The sun came up over the rim of the mountainside above me, but never reached the stream bed or me. I felt like I was so far away from the everyday woes of the world.
But in the end, I couldn’t stay. I worked my way back upstream, moving from rock to rock, branch to branch and suddenly I was back to the car. And back to life in
our everyday world.
The power of the falls is soul soothing. It cleanses. It soothes. It heals....
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