Letter to a Friend

Dear Stephanie,

I am sitting on my back porch drinking blueberry tea with honey and watching the sun melt the patches of snow that cling to the grass. As I was making my tea, I smiled and suddenly felt extremely happy, remembering when we would sit on the porch of Laurel [dorm at Yellowstone National Park], drinking our tea and smoking cigarettes and talking to people and not minding one bit that there was snow on the ground and it was still cold because the day was full of possibility.

It's been a long time since I've felt that was, but today the sun is shining and it makes me feel warm and hopeful that Spring is around the corner. Recently, with the dreary skies and ran and snow I've felt like the weight of the grey clouds was so oppresive. I am done with the cold and I wish it would abate so I could enjoy the warmth of Spring and Summer.

I got to see the sunrise this morning. Cody, our new puppy, and I were out in the back yard as the sky through the trees started to turn a pale orange, almost like orange cream. The birds were chirping away and slowly the color began to grow until the whole horizon was on fire with an orange gold. It was so beautiful.

Right now, the crows are cawing away in the Eastern White Pine trees. The trees remind me of the dense pine forests in Oregon and it feels like I finally have the best of the things I love the most - the West and the East. I wish you could be here.

I'm taking a nature writing class this semester and in everything I read I am reminded of you. How you love and respect the land, are part of nature in a way that I wish I could be. I am thankful that I have a home that will allow me to begin this journey again. I hope that I can find a way to be with nature and the wilderness again. I don't want to possess it, I want it to possess me.

I've been thinking of places to take you when you come to visit. I know we won't have a ton of free time because of the wedding, but I'd like to take you to see Falling Water to see the way that human and nature interact there. And to show you some of the beautiful landscapes of the East Coast. While out mountains might not be snow-tipped or have rocky faces that blush red in the sun, the smooth, rolling hills covered with moss and trees and mountain laurel, that are seperated by swift running streams and smell of fresh, damp earth have their own certain charm. I hope they don't disappoint.

There's a woodpecker knocking in a nearby tree, although I can't see him. I think he is confusing the dog who keeps searching for the origin of the noise, thinking someone wants to come in the door, even though we are outside.

I hope that you enjoy the tail end of winter, too, although I expect that you mght have to wait a bit longer for Spring. I can't wait to see you and go exploring together, so I can teach you for a change about this new landscape you'll be visiting.

-Kate