Two of my very favorite books growing up, and even to this day, have been Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Alice was always shrinking and growing and being forced to examine her world in completely new ways.

I liked to play at being Alice:  peering toward the edges of mirrors and pretending that backward version of my house was waiting for me to come exploring; lying flat on my back on the floor and imagining the ceiling had suddenly become the floor…

Because of my short stature and tendency toward social awkwardness, even now I often feel overlooked and ignored in life — so it’s refreshing to take a look at the world from a perspective even tinier than mine.

Here in California after nearly 5 years of drought any rain is a welcome sight; and this January has been a satisfyingly wet month.  Lush green plant life carpets the ground and the fallen logs, mushrooms and toadstools pop up everywhere, creeks splash and tumble excitedly, and moss on the rocks and trees seems luminescent…

Taking a walk on a grey January day along oh-so-familiar trails, past places that I’ve seen so many times before, I find that instead of rushing past I’m taking the time to get down on the ground and look at the details from a very different angle…

Part 2 coming soon…

(Featured image of snail courtesy of Pexels.com; all other photos are mine.)