Conveying the senses

The Christian Science Monitor runs a column called "The Home Front" where, the paper says, "one religious article...has appeared each day...since 1908, at the request of the paper's founder, Mary Baker Eddy".

In that column on 6 November 2006, Bill Sherwonit wrote an article called "There's much to learn from an owl" -- not particularly religious as far as I could tell, at least not in a dogmatic, conventional sense. It's a simple piece, about a man who goes for a walk through the woods and sees an owl. Nothing major.

There's something about the story that appeals to me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Somehow, the writer manages to carry me along, sharing his quiet elation without fussy words or drawing inordinate attention to himself; yet, by the end of piece, it is he who I end up admiring.