Tracks

January 17, 2025

“Seeing photographs of the early hand-marks left on the cave walls of Maltravieso, Lascaux or Sulawesi, I imagine laying my own palm precisely against the outline left by those unknown makers. I imagine, too, feeling a warm hand pressing through from within the cold rock, meeting mine fingertip to fingertip in an open-handed encounter across time.” ~Robert Macfarlane, Underland

I love winter broadly, and snow-covered ground specifically. Pay attention, says the world, because for a few months, I’m going to let you look into the past. It’s a superpower for a season. Because while you can look for critter tracks and sign all year round, with the snow-covered ground, the world becomes a whiteboard, scribbled over with notes. Correspondence from a fox. A memo from a mouse. A report from a rabbit. “I walked through at dawn.” “I checked all the most important rocks.” “I found that acorn I stashed in October.” “I took shelter in these shrubs.”

The past is noisy. It makes a sound and its strong echo often reaches our present. I see my Aunt Kim in the way I sign my Ks. My dad in my belief in people. Neil’s granny in the cross-stitch that blesses our marriage. My nanna in hard candies and wooden spoons. Our friend Rob in the ethereal and creative. They are, as John Green called them “the people who loved you into your now”. The people are long gone, but they left notes in my snow. I feel their warm hand in all the best parts of my present. Tracks.

I have not made resolutions for this new year, since, as John also recently remarked, “I realized that telling a year what will happen in it is a fool’s errand, because in the end, the year decides.” But I can kindle joy, foster kindness, seek understanding, and create wildly and honestly.

This year, as Maker’s Dozen, we’ll be grandly embarking on even more projects of technology, nature, art, education, transparency, miscellany, resistance, repurpose, and resilience.

In the face of uncertainty and the fog of the future, we resolve to be brave and joyful. To build more bridges and longer tables. To be mindful of the tracks we are making. Of what prints I am leaving for the future.

Happy 2025 folks! I’ll see you out there.

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p.s. I will be attending and also leading a couple of winter tracking walks this year. I’ll post info/dates here when I have details.

Message me if you want me to send you a heads-up, and maybe I’ll literally see you out there…

Photograph: Tracks of a rabbit and fox coming up my driveway.

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UPDATE! Winter Nature Walk - Looking for tracks and birds

9AM Thursday, January 30th

Location: McDonald Road Trail Head, Northumberland County Forest (just north of Centreton)

This walk will take approximately 1.5-2 hours, covering 4-5km.

“Please confirm your interest in this event by emailing willowbeachfn@gmail.com. In the event of inclement weather, we will then be able to notify you of any change.”