Moss-covered Memories

  On the north side of the Little Bayou House, there is a trail that leads into the woods.  It meanders under the magnolia trees, between huge clumps of palmettos and down the hill to the chinkapin (chinquapin) trees. Once you make the final turn back toward the house, you happen upon a rather interesting sight.  Beneath the briers, you can find the most lovely, moss-covered log that you ever want to see!  The thing is a good fifteen feet long and has most of the bark missing.  All that is left is the heart of the tree and mounds of rotted wood.  What once was a majestic pine tree now is a delightfully interesting moss bed.

  No matter how often I hike this path, the log is always a stopping point.  It fascinates me.  I admit that this fascination comes from as far back as my childhood.  It was then that I was taught to see things a bit differently than most folks.  A moss-covered log is not some discard of nature but is a habitat for a multitude of new species of flora and fauna.  It is not some ugly trash in the forest but is a thing of natural beauty.  

  As a child, the discovery of such a log would have thrown me into a fantasy land of make believe. Hours upon hours would have been spent clearing the brambles from the area.  My small hands would have been scratched by the briers, arms bitten by ants and mosquitoes and I would have been dirty beyond belief but...my log would have become a play area,  More oft than not, my folks could find me in the edge of the woods playing in my own little world.
  
  This afternoon as Mark and I walked the back path, that log took me way back to those happy times.  I mentioned to Mark that I wanted to clear the pathways again and maybe cut the brambles away from the old log.  I am not sure he understood what was going through my head but he simply nodded in agreement and let me wallow in the possibilities of a new happy place.