Here, at last, on this edge of wilderness,
We can come out of the cities and the suburbs and the traffic
And leave behind the schedules and the obligations,
Those regular, familiar, comfortable surroundings,
To challenge ourselves in this great expanse,
Face to face with all of its rugged beauty,
Lost in the fresh air, listening to the sweet stream,
And looking up out of the trees to the hills,
Wondering if we can find a way through those woods,
Along those sharp ridges and over those crags and boulders
Up to the very summit.

Here, at last, we can take a deep breath
Standing in the sky, in the wind,
In that tremendous expanse of shape and light,
Those mountains reflected in those dark, deep lakes,
Making a connection to something else,
Something intangible, beneath the surface,
In rocks and rivers and the roots of trees,
Clean air and a clarity of light
Taking our breath away,
And leading us to the sky.

Here, we look down into the depths of that lake
And feel something, a resonance we cannot articulate,
A music in the pale, translucence of our spirit
Lifting us into the skies and beyond
Until there is nothing left but the bright stars
Brilliant in their portrait of the essence of our souls,
The nature we were born into,
And the aspirations reaching in our arms.

And there, a thundering cataract echoes across the valleys,
Bringing us closer to the edge of that cliff
In mid air, Leaves us standing transfixed
In between life and death,
Between remembering and dreaming
This strange sound heard in the forest,
This rustle of living leaves, of dead leaves underfoot,
The tall pines and the fallen oaks.

Here, we discover the wilderness within ourselves,
An altar standing in the cathedral of life itself,
Like a wildcat crouched beside a stream
Watching a deer in the depths of the trees,
Unpredictable and deadly and beautiful.

Here, we come close to where we want to be,
Under the arms of the mountains,
On the edge of that cliff,
Beside the clear running stream
Where those animals crouch and watch,
If only for a moment,
Grasping for something we cannot describe
in the deep, sheltering, wild expanse of skies.