Stonework of the Wild

I searched for Acadia’s rare pink granite in an older spruce forest near the park’s edge, away from the familiar trails and regrowth that followed the Great Fire, drawn to the darker woods that still carry the island’s earlier character. Behind a screen of evergreens, ledges opened into a moody, shadowed space where the granite glowed faintly with color. After working through the dim light, I found a composition where darkness and illumination balanced, and the granite blocks looked more like toy blocks, accentuating the rare pink color. Indigenous cultures regard rocks as animate beings and look at people to be in communion with their environment, including with rocks, ledges, and trees.  For a time, I felt myself in the midst of this, enveloped, calm, and grateful.