I've been holding these for you. They're getting heavy. I picked them up one at a time on a walk along a river, on a cold September day in the North Country. The first snows of the season dusted the Green and Red colored Mountains over night, and the morning broke with mysterious dark clouds, mist, and flurries. One of those days when a normally big and breathtaking environment, becomes Grand. I truly believed the whole of Beauty and Grandeur were mine, I felt like a kid in a candy store.
Inside the east entrance to Glacier National Park, just past the Apgar Visitor Center. on the south end of McDonald Lake there is a river. If the water isn't to high in the rocky gravel washes, one can stay to the right side of the river and walk for some distance with only cold feet. A group of 6 or 8 mule deer crossed the river very close to me, and as I worked my way through some brushy washes. Farther up a rise, I saw a herd of elk, including a big bull, run across a meadow and into a grove of deciduous trees at the base of the Mountains. I wondered if I had walked into another world ...
I thought about you heavy, and figured I'd bring a piece of it back for you. It was in this place, I found these stones, each one painstakingly chosen for you only, complete with Beauty and Color of the snow covered Mountains ingrained.
I've kept them in a grocery bag In a closet. Dehydrated for years, dull and lusterless, I soaked them in the kitchen sink, and everything came back just as it was, after a dusting of snow and the misting rain on the day I walked along the river in this beautiful place. In this simple time I knew they were special, but could not imagine so many would see them. My humble depiction of the both diverse and relative structure of physical beauty, the sublime, the mysterious design of calling _
and the way I feel about you.
http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm
