Star shine drips from the night sky and runs along the naked winter tree branches like syrup

Leaving iridescent trails of silver to wrap around the rough barked trunks.

 

The sliver shine lights my way

As it spills star souls on the forest floor and

 

While I follow the star trails, eons pass in an instant and eternity sleeps

In the soft warm glow of acceptance and starlight.

 

The cold surrounds my soul and heart in these winter depths and

Dense air adds clarity to my vision as I walk the trials of the stars.

 

These star trails take me to a different place, a place at once new and ancient,

A place to observe all in silence while cloaked in the winter wood.

 

I see mosses hold their breath in the glow of the star-flow and hear them whispering their secrets to a silent waiting cosmos while holding tightly to the trunks of the trees.

 

Late geese fly across the moon, their cries urgent in the night sky

Confused by the uncommon shimmering silver ground below.

 

I am not alone in this realm of silver winter as

The forest is full of the souls and spirits of summer’s love.

 

I feel them all around me, darting in and out of tree shadows,

Stopping to watch me from behind drifts of truth and light.

 

The discarded autumn leaves warm the soil beneath the drifts

And life waits in patient stillness.

 

My mind becomes as still as the waiting life as I travel the empty space between the stars reflected in snow’s white depth.

 

There is no urgency in me or in this place

Only the beauty and silence of peace and star light.

 

The winter forest is a secret,

A complete world in and of itself hiding in plain sight.

 

Its silence a decoy to protect its love lying safe and secure underground.

Go to the forest; breathe in the silent dripping starshine,

 

Follow the starlight as it traces the outline your soul.

Blend with the magic of the forest as

 

It is only there under the canopy of eternity that you can become as silent and still

As the dense crisp air surrounding you and once again, as in the beginning,

 

Go home to that place within that holds you in the soft silver glow of now and

Within  that silent place returns you to wholeness.

 

The soul of the winter forest knows and understands you.

She waits for your return.