RAGS TO WILDERNESS

Letting my pack slide from my shoulders to the ground, I filled my canteen from the freezing water of the small stream. In doing so I was captured by the warming sun, and it brought me to lay down on my back with my head resting against my pack. Captured by the aroma from the tens of thousands of wildflowers that grew in the basin, I drifted off into sleep. After a short nap, I made the decision to spend the night, and who knows, maybe even two. My attention was taken to the movement below one of the far off high snowpacks that nearly crested the top of the peak in front of me. It was a black bear with two cubs turning over rocks to gobble up whatever treats they were finding hidden beneath. One of the cubs wasn’t paying as much attention to turning over boulders as its mother and sibling. This cub was alone and seemed more interested in the grasses and fresh flowers that were spilled out amongst the green slopes. I wished that someone else could witness the beauty of this hidden discovery. I started daydreaming, thinking to myself, why should I have the privilege of seeing something so hidden and yet so primitive and pristine? I had the sense that I was witnessing a place of nature that was supposed to stay hidden away from the disturbance that people seem to always bring. Just being able to observe what I was witnessing was touching my spirit and soul in a way that I believed could heal anything negative about me.