Nachusa {midwest wandering}

Sometimes, often times, when I walk, I am flooded with words.  My mind fills and describes in characters the space that surrounds me.  But here I was not.  My senses were flooded.  My eyes with bright colors and vast spaces.  My skin touched by warm sun and a fickle breeze and air cooled by the shade of oaks.  My nostrils were greeted at intervals by the soft aroma of flowers and grasses and mud.  Birdsong was with us constantly.  I used my camera to record what I saw until I gave my camera to my children and released my eyes to see and the rest of me to feel.  I want to know the character of the land as it was when it still belonged to itself.  I want to see what my ancestors saw before their dreams and their plows turned it under.  I want to know my place in the world as the world was; when it belonged to its own character.  This place offers the blessing of a glimpse and a blessing to the land itself and to all the tiny beings, me included who need the land for breath. 

Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, Illinois, May 16, 2020

With gratitude,

Jo