In the presence of everything around me

There were bison crossing over the road–two thousand pound mammals crossing over the road… It was about 60 below 0. And the bison, as they breathed, their exhalation would seem to crystallize in the air around them and there were these sheets, these ropey strands of crystals kind of flowing down from their breath…

I felt like, this was the first day. And this morning was the first time the sun had ever come up. And the shadows that are being cast right now is the first time those shadows have ever been cast on the earth.

And I was all alone but I felt I was in the presence of everything around me and I was never alone.

It was one of those moments when you get pulled outside of yourself into the environment around you and I felt like I was just with the breath of the bison as they were exhaling and as I was exhaling and they were inhaling it was all kind of flowing together…

All I was thinking of was that a single moment in a place as wild as Yellowstone, and most of the National Parks, can last forever.

Shelton Johnson in National Parks, Episode 2 on his encounter with bison while delivering mail on snowmobile in Yellowstone National Park.