Maybe I’ve been staring at a computer screen for too long, but the light coming through the leaves today seems magical. Leaves becoming translucent filter the sunlight through a glorious green-gold.

I get to the bridge and turn to look upstream toward the modest waterfall we affectionately call ‘Koop’s Falls’. The moss covered rocks and the silver stream glow with stunning beauty.

Drawn upstream I find a spot to lean against a tree with a view of the falls. The tumbling water rushes then slows to a babble and the duet is beautiful. I notice how high the water has come on the opposite bank, far higher than where I sit. The soil is washed away leaving rocks jutting out as precarious foundations for the trees the cling their roots to them. A lot of trees lie across the stream and many of them seem recently fallen. We have witnessed a lot of high winds and stormy nights. Twisted tree stumps suggest a story that is not always the setting of gently moving water, fresh breezes and glowing light.

Sometimes the wind and water combine with such force that they change the lay of the land. So too in life it seems that storms collide in such a way that the soul’s landscape bears the scars of flooding water and hurricane force winds. Yet, in time, they also give way to a new gentleness. I sit in  wonder at the powerful movements in my own life, gentle places that also bear witness to stormier times.