Today I am thankful for...
silence.
For if it was not silent, in the forest, beside the lake, where I stood with my husband and little babe, we would not have been able to hear the ice moving. As soon as we got out of the car, we heard strange noises that did not sound man made. The sky was an overcast dull gray color. The top several inches of the lake were frozen with a dusting of snow on top. It was cold, somewhere between 12 and 20 degrees. We walked down to the edge of the lake and stood still, just listening. It was silent, except for the ice, expanding and contracting, creating small cracks in the ice. It reminded me of the recordings of whale sounds that I have heard. Mournful and otherworldy. And just plain awesome. We could feel the vibrations through the dock post when the ice cracked.
The lake is created by a dam, so even though it appeared frozen solid, we knew that water was flowing through underneath the ice layer. We saw animal tracks leading across the lake. How do they know that the ice will hold them? We saw bright red berries, dull gray-blue berries, and bird's nests. We cockily pushed our way past the sign that said "closed trail due to hazardous trail conditions" and came out the other side just fine. We got pretty darn cold. We visited the raptors in the empty outdoor raptor center. It was silent there also. Silent enough to hear the tiny Short-eared Owl hissing at us. We got even colder so we headed back towards the car. We stood on the shore again, my husband and I holding hands through our thick mittens, the little babe on my chest, and we smiled while listening to the ice.
I was thankful.
What are you thankful for today?
I invite other bloggers to leave a link to their most recent post on thankfulness and I encourage everyone to share what they are thankful for.
Joining Chrisy at Living A Good North Coast Life for Reconnecting With Nature.