June 10, 2026

I am never higher

Than when I am walking

Through the wood.

Drunken

On the landscape.

Because,

When I am out here,

I just feel so close.

And the trees are just

So beautiful,

And the thicket is just

So lush,

And the wildflowers bloom by the thousands,

And each stream, each creek

So quickly sweeping, rushing,

Bubbling atop those moss adorned rocks.

Those heav'nly showers last night, im still breathing.

All of that thick air;

So hot and wet;

Intoxicating.

I am trekking through the Flint Hills

And I am coming alive again.

I am talking to God

and laughing with the trees;

I am walking through spiderwebs

And listening to the bees.

Singing with the vireos,

Those buntings!

That grosbeak!

I am stopping to stare at the fungus,

Marveling at each kind;

I am standing in the sunshine,

My skin damp and burning;

My toes are sunken in the muck,

My hair is wet and wild.

I am the happiest ive ever been.