A Walk in the Woods

An unexpected but wondrous surprise during my short stay in Clinton, Mississippi this weekend was a visit to the Clinton Community Nature Center on Friday afternoon and a return Saturday morning.  I was virtually the only person on the trails, among them the Pioneer, Pine Woods, Grapevine, and a fragment of the Old Natchez Trace.  The land is carefully preserved and lovingly care for.  A profound morning of seeing, listening, and bearing witness, of solitude, dappled sunlight, wind rustling the upper branches of the trees, and everywhere the fall of leaves and an occasional acorn -- a gentle reminder of the impermanence of all things.