Small Moment

Every now and then, you read a book that just sweeps you in and holds you. This is one of those books.

I had seen a review of this work and ordered it through the library on the strength of that reviewer's praise. I had never heard of Robert MacFarlane, although he apparently is a highly acclaimed nature writer.

Underland is about what is beneath us: caves, burial mounds, catacombs, fossils, bones, underground rivers, mining.

But that is just the "topic." It is a stunning work in its scope and in its language. From the moment I opened the book, Macfarlane's words ran smoothly across the page and lodged deep in me.

Of course I reaped quotes from the book. How could I not? Here is a small bit of one: "Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save."

And he gave me a quote from W. H. Murray, a Scottish mountaineer and writer I had never heard of before, that I carry around in my figurative pocket and pull out constantly: "Find beauty, be still."

I will never view or think about what lies beneath our feet the same way again.