The sun rises to meet the dark green of the forest with beams of light. Each one is a brightly lighted passageway through the many mini drops of the early morning mist that creates a soft pastel rainbow.
Bird song begins as we walk into the forest losing ourselves in the background hum of a bright and beautiful mountain country day.
We need only be quiet, friendly and peaceful to know the ways of wood folk. Only as we keep silent and avoid all excitement do we learn that they are more curious about us than we are about them.
What is that rustling in the wood? As we control our own curiosity and open our eyes and our heart, we discover that sweet mystery that shows us the curious bits of their lives that we would never otherwise experience.
Wood folk, when they find us quiet and peaceful, soon forget their fear and their curiosity goes beyond their control until they must find out who we are and what we are doing.
Beaver do talk...visit the banks of their
homes...watch and listen tuning in to the rhythm and the ways of these master builders.
This particular family numbers five and as we moved quietly in we noticed around a stump a pile of chips from their wood-cutting. A colony will often fell a whole grove of young birch or poplar on the bank above the dam. The branches with the best bark are then cut into short lengths, rolled down the bank and floated in the dam. Near their home branches are sunk for winter feeding.
Today as the beaver disappear from sight we can move closer to their home and listen to beaver talk from our overhead perch. As we stretch our heads and ears to listen...Splash! A beaver gliding past has just seen us. As he dives he gives the water a sharp blow with his broad tail, the danger signal for the beavers and a startling one for us in the quietness of this Appalachian Mountain Country World, and our Heaven on this beautiful planet we call Earth.
Copyright © 1988, 1999 Barbara A. Smith and John G. Hipps. All rights reserved.
This essay was first published Aug 3, 1988 in the Free-Press Courier, Westfield, Pennsylvania.