For a moment we were little again. Free and wild roaming the woods with not a care in the world. It was cold but not unbearable. It was wet but just a medium thick misting of rain flowed from above. Heavy drops coming down from where the water had accumulated on high branches. A comment was made on how it reminded me of the movie scenes set in the forest wilds of Washington or Oregon. The fallen trees bare of bark with wild mushrooms growing in their formation with the luster of whimsical bright moss patches & wet ferns grouped everywhere your eye would land.
I in my Navy wool Pea coat, jeans,boots, fingerless gloves and a thick beanie. He in a thin fleece overcoat, jeans & Army boots. As well as his small black beanie which barely covered his big head & ears.
A moment we both escaped into as though the last 20 some years were all but a distant dream. It started with a simple invitation to see "my woods". To walk the ridge and look for deer tracks. We walked that ridge and ducked under trees which had been bent by the hand of Nature into M's & U's. We held back thorny berry briar's still thriving with powdery hues of purple & white. Snagged our clothes on wild roses bare of their summer petals and leaves, making our approach a combined effort of movement.Their presence forcing you to be patient and slow as though they demanded you soak in and acknowledge the wonders spread before you.
My baby brother Army... Oh how I adore and love him so. I miss our time together. Just him & me as well as Big brother John Boy. When we would spend from the time the sun was rising until well after it had fallen. Out exploring. Building forts, scavenging for "food" and coming up with the most wild imaginative adventures we, as kids, could come up with. This was a day, like a page direct from our childhood story.
We stood atop the ridge, looking down into the deep ravine. Surveying for a movement. Observing the dips and thick logs laid out in our path. Then he saw it. An arrow! Sticking out from the ground. It's quiver a beacon of pink & white. We did not have to speak a word nor did we for a long period here. We both knew what the other was thinking and gladly descended into the belly of our playground. He motioned we split up. He on the south. I on the north. Scouring the land beneath each branch. Each leaf & pine needle bed. Gently stepping so as not to break the silence with an echo alerting of our presence. One after another were found with alert to the other a simple small whistle and smile of acknowledgment. At one point he had found over 8 which I could not help but motion my hands up and down as though to say "Dang it man!". Both of us smiling with the mindless way we had stepped right back into time without a second thought or hesitation.
The sky was turning more grey, alerting us to head back to the house before we were caught in a down pour. Not enough time to build a pine branch lean-to, as we may have done those few decades ago. Oh, how I would have loved to do just that. Sit beneath our Pine fort. Listening to the rain beat down on the leaves and watch the world stay alive as we hold on to the moment of a big sister with her little brother escaping into the past ways of their childhood.
It was the most enjoyable afternoon. The most heart filling time I have had the opportunity to share with him in a very long time. The bonds of brother & sister never broken. Never dismissed. Just hidden deep inside to be brought out on occasion as one would a most cherished treasure.
There will be more of these times. I feel that deep in my heart. There may very well come a time we may not be able to descend the ravine and stay out in the cold rain as we had once done. A time when these memories stirred by a simple scent on the wind. A sound through the trees and a knowing twinkle in each others eyes will be just enough to fill us with sibling love. Resurfacing those moments forever etched into our being.
Until next time....
Sweet dreams my friends,
~Tammie
