Birch Entwined

On my last morning in the wilderness, I wondered if I would find a tree worth photographing before leaving. After three nights, the shortening days and sharp cold felt like winter pressing closer, and just after sunrise, I found a quiet meeting of granite and birch roots. Robin Wall Kimmerer in "Braided Sweetgrass" writes that trees, rocks, and mountains are animate beings imbued with spirit, and that if we speak from the heart, they will hear us. I listened, and I heard birch and granite speaking to me.