Judy Leaver, Professional Writer | Best Words, Best Order

Archive for March, 2010

Literary Mileage
Listen to the Woods

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

“Close your eyes and listen to the woods,” says a mom to her three boys on the red hiking trail at Calvert Cliffs State Park. I walk a bit further and sit down on a bench to do as she says. I am taking advantage of this 75 degree-first-full-day-of-spring to stretch my winter legs, breathe deeply of the promise of spring, and listen to the sounds of life resurrecting all around me.

Hikers on the red trail.

So, here’s what I heard on that bench, just a few hundred feet from the Chesapeake Bay: a robin commenting, woodpecker pecking, water trickling its way to the Bay, a slight rustle to leaves behind me as some creature shifts position, a ripple on the edge of the swamp caused by a sunbathing turtle that slides smoothly into the water, the murmur of voices, a teenager’s laugh, and a toddler saying he’s tired (while in his mom’s arms).

I am too far inland to hear the soft waves on the bay that offer up fossils, shark’s teeth, and rocks. These treasures, for most hikers, are the pot of gold at the end of the two-mile trail from the parking lot. Many of them carry plastic buckets to collect what they find.

The treasures for me are the fresh smell of pine needles underfoot, the first signs of green foliage, seeing at least 20 turtles of varying sizes sunning themselves on the logs in the swamp, the occasional ‘thunk’ in the water that signals all the life beneath the surface.