In memory there still exists a photo of my grandmother as a girl. She stands indomitable on the front sidewalk of the Shefka house in Bessemer, dwarfed by the two towering walls of snow that flank her close on either side.
Save for Grandma and the bit of house behind her, it's an entire universe of snow.
That may have been the same winter her brothers jumped out the building's 2nd story window into the snow, but nobody who'd know is left around to ask.
The first time I visited the northwoods in winter, we didn't die. Neither the 2nd, though both times were life lived on its edge.
The evening after Wil and I got stuck, I returned by myself to the scene. So wondrous was the place, I needed to see it again and wander around some on my own.
That 2nd night on the ice, I was more isolated than I've ever been in my life.
But as always in the wilderness, never for a moment alone.
These are frighteningly deep, impossibly dangerous caldron holes on either side of the falls. And the snow around that brutal cold maelstrom is positively littered with fresh track of the otters that dove in to hunt the fish that live there…
The same proved true at the semi-open water where my beloved river poured into the big lake:
Having learned my lesson the night before and left the car all the way out at the edge of plowed road, I trekked from the woods in semi-darkness. Orion rose in the sky over Superior behind me.
I stood there looking at the stars, listening to the profound silence across all the world beneath them.
Ten years ago this month seems like ancient history, today.
Damned glad I was there.
And that the images captured then, including my collection of snapshots, mean I'll always remember.
Amazing work, and powerful!
ReplyDeleteThank-you Avital, for the kind words and for stopping by to share them. When I started this, I never figured to still be hacking away at it ten years later but... Here I am.
ReplyDelete