Enchantment

While driving home, not after work and not yet noon, but in that late morning period where 10:30 turns into past lunchtime--I took my favorite route. It takes me past a field where I sometimes see coyotes galloping away from the road across a vast openness--like I would even chase them. They turn and look as if to see if I am watching or following, but in truth, I admire their stride.

This morning there were no coyotes, but a strangeness was in the air. The wind was audible even with my windows rolled up, seeming to blow from all directions at once. I had the wherewithal to stop to take pictures as the sky rolled forth in a strikingly mystic pose.

Even with thrown rays of light, the air seemed darker. I parked and got out of my car, filled with a sense of wonderment.

I paused to look at a no-name creek which frequently floods, and never goes dry even during the parched months of summer. Time and again I have thought of taking a kayak around the bend to see where this channel goes--perhaps to a beaver dam, or a hidden pond that no one knows about. Today, the colors of winter were pushed aside. The water was greener, the trees downstream budding with the purples of red-buds.

Looking up, it seemed as if it were raining mistletoe. A majestic tree barren of her own leaves, seemed to embrace this parasitic plant.

A few steps east brought me to a trail I have never traveled. A levee covered with new soft short grass colored in spring over the remnants of winter. The curve of the trail called me, and yet I could not go. Duties in the grownup world had me in their grasp, and I hoped a few pictures might keep this moment and this invitation alive.

Returning to my car, the clusters of mistletoe blended with the shading of blue skies against trespassing spring clouds in a February sky, resulting in an enchanting blanket of pastel violet. But to my dismay, it quickly passed. The air returned to the usual grayness associated with a mid-winter's day.

As I got in my car, I snapped one last picture, seeing the the aura lifting and disappearing into the sky. It was gone.