Channeling Dillard’s reflections on the nature of perception, Kuehl describes a walk through a forest, experiencing similar disorientation and bewilderment as in the case study Dillard discusses, of newly sighted individuals after a successful eye surgery.
“When I looked up… Trees were reaching up and playing with the sky’s colors. The light danced in the openings between… and the endless depth of our atmosphere had been replaced with color and light, and trees were touching and engaging with its blue gradients and white clouds, giving no evidence of any depth at all.” Tall trees seem so far away, yet at the same time close, “with a sky that could just as well be right on top of them.”