the tree with the lights in it

annie dillard changed my life. 
i read pilgrim at tinker creek, about the tree with the lights in it, 
then perhaps the next year, i saw it. too.
(i was 23, maybe.)
today i saw it. them. thousands. tens of thousands. 
once again.
rime ice or hoarfrost or snow coating the trees. 
all along tooley pond road. from to degrasse to cranberry lake.
deep woods.
in the thin december light, before it changed and flattened.
we traveled the snowy road (thankfully plowed this year) to the deep woods.
wild forest.
saw a few tracks, nothing much moving, a raven is all.
but crystal in such quantity
i was visually exhausted.
excess of holy day presented by mother nature.
 the sound was amazing, wild water in the very cold.
a portent. a blessing.