Millie and I arrived up in the mountains last night right before midnight, the temperature in single digits and the house not much warmer until I lit a fire.
Millie trolled the property for recent (furry) visitors, her nose trawling through the powdery snow while I hauled our stuff inside. I came up here to my house in the Berkshires to work on my book that will be released at year’s end, so I better start thinking about wrapping things up, don’t you agree?
But first came this blog and I just couldn’t think of what to blog about. I had some ideas scattered across scraps of papers…Don’t forget Haiti…Never trust the groundhog…Valentine’s?…Circle of Inspiration video and launch of this exciting product….
In the morning I thought getting out in the woods would help me excavate an idea from my brain and, besides, I’d promised Millie a hike up East Mountain on the Appalachian Trail if the snowpack wasn’t too deep.
We started out in late morning when the temperature rose above 20. The snow was manageable and the woods muffled and still.
Before long we crossed a little creek, the water still burbling under a carapace of ice. Millie wanted to test the ice but I warned her away.
Above the creek the trail steepened and we were both breathing hard, Millie taking the lead and looking back at me periodically with what can only be described as a grin.
Finally the trail breaking got too arduous for both of us and we turned off down an old logging trail and headed toward a closed summer camp so Millie could have some wide spaces to run in. I found a ball to toss and she was in heaven.
So was I. And that is what my blog is finally about…finding the moments of heaven in life when all is still and white and perfect—so perfect we could live in them forever.
Edward Grinnan is Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of GUIDEPOSTS Publications.
