Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

In March, the narrator stops at a gas station along the interstate to buy coffee and fuel. The worker at the station has a small beagle puppy that follows the narrator outside. As she looks at the mountains alongside the vacant highway and pets the puppy, she is consumed by a sense of the present. She realizes that she is in this moment and a part of it. However, as soon as she recognizes the feeling, it flits away. She compares the moment to the little girl who had cataract surgery and saw a tree for the first time. The narrator explains that consciousness allows the individual to connect with the present, but self-consciousness or self-awareness pulls the individual away from God, wonder, and time. She describes innocence as a lack of self-consciousness. This is why small children and infants may engage more fully with wonder; they have not yet gained an understanding of the self.

The narrator describes moments of feeling fully in the present moment. Once, while visiting a university, she witnessed one scientist cutting into a fish while another scientist ate his grapefruit with a spoon. Another moment found her driving along a road in Grundy, Virginia, and spotting a tree covered in clothes.