A Walk on the Wild Side by Susan L.

Yesterday afternoon was so lovely that I went for a walk in the conservation area across the road from my house. It's quiet this time of year because the campers, the picnicers, and swimmers have all gone home. The air was rich with autumn smells, fresh and earthy. Sometimes I pause for a while to sit and watch the fish leap out of the water after some juicy morsel that flew too close to the surface. They gleam in the late afternoon sun and the splash surrounds them in liquid fire. There is a quality to the light just before the sun goes down that gives everything a luminescence glow. Photographers call this the golden hour because colours are more brilliant. White asters shine like miniature stars, the wild grapes are a velvet purple. The pockets of leaves that have begun to shed their green dresses shimmer in golds and bronze and silver. The path is littered with footprints: human, dog, racoon, mouse, and occasionally deer leave their mark as well. Beaver tracks lead across the path fron land to water where they have dragged carefully chosen branches to store in their winter larder. I am surprised by just how far they forage. There are old cedars surrounding the path towards home. One of them erupts from the ground like a six fingered hand. Leaves and debris from seasons past are cupped between the massive fingers creating a stable base in the center. I often stand in the middle, finding comfort in the security of the tree. It is an earthly, tangible place that reminds me, God has truly got the whole world in His hands. "We will enclose her with boards of cedar.8:9" Song _