If parents were honest they would admit that some birthdays sneak up on them every year which leaves them scrambling for that last minute perfect gift. It's that way with Helen who falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Abby on the other hand is a March birthday and so it feels like come February, I have been counting the days for some time. February in southern VT is an odd month. When the month begins I feel like I have just started winter fun like snowshoeing and ice fishing; but nearing the end as it is now, I am already looking for signs of early spring. Oh to be so lucky as to have two months of wintery snowy fun followed by bright green clover! Suffice to say, that in reality we must look towards the conifers and laurel if we are to find anything remotely close to Irish green in March.
It was in February of 2020 that Martin Langeveld and I met at the Vernon library to put into action an idea I had of writing a blog about Vernon's natural features. Martin already had the successful Town of Vernon site and the Vernon, VT Facebook group up and running and so did me a great kindness in mentoring me in this endeavor. Little did I realize that Nature Finds would in its entirety to date, take place during a socially isolating Coronavirus pandemic. Though I had plenty of time to count the days with one hundred and thirty stories posted, I had forgotten Nature Finds "'birthday."
It was Abby expressing that she felt like she had "leapt from twenty two years old to twenty four years old" thus skipping twenty three altogether, that started me thinking about the missing year. Had Wayne and I really sat out an entire year? How many candle pin bowling games had we missed? What about all of those dinners and movies out? Is there even still a Target in Keene? While it's true that the birthdays and holidays celebrated on video chat lacked all of the chaos, they also lacked heartfelt conversations and the physical touch of loved ones. Questions began weighing on me, how does one measure a year of being on hold and was there really anything at all worth measuring?
It must have been the optimism of impending March that emboldened me to suggest to Wayne that we go on a trek that we had twice before began but never completed. Years ago, our neighbors the Morrisettes told us about a trail that crossed through Silver Ln. That first attempt took us as far as we dared go not knowing whose property we were crossing. I remember it being hot and not being a fan of the uphill climb. Then last Autumn, Wayne and I not knowing where we were headed, decided to follow a trail that we picked up in the town forest. I wrote about that adventure in "Hike A Right Before Rifle Season." It was a comment on that post, that alerted us to the fact that the two trails were one in the same.
That Autumn hike ended abruptly as we could not locate a stream shown on Google Maps. We thought that we were somehow turned around and didn't want to make the evening news. We had made it to the bottom of a long steep hill and began searching for the stream. As it turns out, we took that hike during the most intense drought in VT since the US Drought Monitor began keeping records in 2000. Finding no water, it was back up the steep rocky incline with numerous rests and our inner grumblings about our aches and pains to keep us company.
How does one measure a missing year? For me it was by strapping on snowshoes at 9:30 on a sunny blue skied morning for a two hour uphill hike. It was being excited by the prospect of not being where Google Maps thought we were (Jamaica, VT), guessing on which trail to take, trusting ourselves, and pressing on. It was about not running into another person until we conquered our goal and feeling like the full streams flowing, animal tracks in the snow and the birds singing all around us where perfect company. It was realizing that I could have hiked for a lot longer distance because I had energy and enthusiasm to spare. Finally, it was texting my children from the town forest that we had made it and were heading back home.
Measuring a year as if it skipped over your old life is truly a missing year. Exploring a goal that you might have forgotten about or hadn't the time or energy to struggle with in a typical year, then discovering that you are capable of achieving it, is a better measure of a year. I'm sure that if my readers truly looked back at this extraordinary time, many of you would discover that there has always been green beneath that blanket of snow, it's only been dormant for far too long. The change in ourselves had already taken root a year ago, it had only been waiting for the right time to grow.
All of the days spent with Wayne over the past year trying to answer the question of "What are you seeing out there?" proved to us that we hadn't missed a year due to COVID after all. We had instead taken the time to hike an old path and in doing so, we discovered new trails going forward. It may be snowing in Vernon, VT this afternoon and though I may be dreaming of spring, its somehow good to be in my own backyard in Vernon, VT during the winter months. - Norma Manning
No comments:
Post a Comment