RUNNING BAREFOOT: It's like y'know......

I had been searching for it for a really long time.

When I found it I knew.

Like a punch to the gut it instantly took away my breath.

That word.

Those words.

After awhile it had become almost a joke.

To actually catch sight of one was rare indeed.

Those that did were usually close, intimate friends.

It's an intimate thing.

The kind of friends that sat quietly in the woods with me.

The kind that didn't rush a mountain view or casually stroll past a tree full of wisdom.

Well except for that time I went parasailing with the strange man with serious body odor.

He saw one.

But I figure he didn't notice, he probably gets a lot of people gasping for breath.

I'm one of those people for whom words never fail.

It's my curse.

And my blessing.

But every once in awhile they do.

In these moments they always do.

"Like...... I don't know a nature panic attack" I said, after she saw one for the first time.

The tears were still streaming. My face red. My heart pounding out of my chest and the overwhelming desire to climb into the very earth itself.

To wrap myself in that mountain. That tree. The way the water pierced that rock. The green folding itself onto the granite.

Whatever the view.

When the earth speaks it takes my breath away.

And my words.

Instead there are a lot of gutteral sounds.

Now do you see why I am careful with my company?

She laughed.

She gave it it's own name.

The only one we use now.

Probably not fitting for print.

But they understood it.

Kindred spirits always do.

The first time I read Anne of Green Gables I wanted to run like the wind all the way to Prince Edward Island and sit at the feet of Lucy Maude Montgomery and say

"I didn't know. I didn't know anyone could put into words the earth. I didn't know anyone could say what I felt. "

It has happened many times since.

John Muir

Henry David Thoreau

That article about the national parks that I tore out of the drs office magazine.

But never have I heard it put into a word, this feeling.

Until last week.

I read it.

I read it again.

And again.

I couldn't believe it.

There is it was.

So perfectly written I was instantly filled with overwhelming envy.

I coveted those words.

I wanted to steal them for my own.

The author had snuck into my mind and read my thoughts and put them into print and then defined them with a simple word.

"When the earth strikes the senses in such a way that it renders one speechless and can only be attributed to a higher power, the only word that can be uttered is sublime."

At least that is what I think it said.

I was on Percocet at the time.

But it burrowed into my heart and spoke truth.

I wish I had those words now.

Percocet is mind thief.

I wish I could remember the magazine.

Backpacker I think?

Sunset?

I wish I knew the author.

I would thank her.

She gave me a gift.

A word.