Hidden Treasures

I’m obsessed. I don’t even know why. I call these little hidden treasures Fairy Houses. If there is such a thing, this is where I want to live, in a moss covered miniature cave which holds the secrets to life and casts a spell on those who would discover it’s charms.

I cannot help but search out these little trinkets of nature that amuse and fascinate me. All things lichen and moss call my name. I read a book a few years ago called, “The Signature of All Things”, but Elizabeth Gilbert. She is the same author that wrote, “Eat, Pray, Love”. Anyway her book was about a botanist who studied mosses. What was remarkable to me is that moss lives and breathes on a different time scale than the rest of the world. Moss grows in the opposite of light years. Slow, and steady, unrushed and deliberate.

There is no florid haste in these moss covered hideouts. There is no stress or strain. They govern the forest with secrets too silent to hear. They mark their spot on the earth, in full view yet hidden like tiny spy cameras. What lurks inside is left to the imagination. They flourish hidden in worlds we cannot perceive!

Part chipmunk or squirrel, the homes to which I have never seen, yet know exist. The construction of which defines architecture at it purist.

Disguised, though, they may be, they jut into this world like charms on a bracelet. Yet, they neither sparkle, nor glow, but shine with richness of Mother Nature’s breast.

No doorbell, nor phone, yet, each beckons me to reach inside where gnomes may still dwell in magic. To climb into their shrouded encampment and pluck their treasures hidden behind make believe doors.

Each summer, I wait with veiled anticipation for the return of these caverns of mystery and mystic. I long to see which have survived the winter and those that will burst anew with the fresh thaw. Each year is like opening presents of Christmas when I return. Most are changed, but not abandoned. Some are newly discoverable.

This summer when you venture on the trails, search for these and let me know if you find them as compelling as I. For in these shadows rest some of natures coolest secrets, yearning for you to find them!