Why I walk in the woods...

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” -William Blake

There are moments in ones life when eternity engulfs your present moment like a dream. Time stands still and you hover momentarily in the arms of life eternal in the now. Yesterday was a holy epiphany for me. As I stood in the immense beauty of the canyon, with majestic, white bouldered hills jutting triumphantly into the azure blue sky...I hung in between eternity and time.

As I was dwarfed under the giant Ponderosa pines, like a child looks up to a parent...I felt small but in the safe sense. For me nature has a sooting way of awakening my hardening heart. My soul seems to grow old faster in the city...but in the woods, by the stream, under the canopy of limb and leaf...I am born anew.

Philosophy begins in wonder.-Plato

When I stand in creation...I stand before the Creator. It is revelatory...breathing out voice to my deafening ears.

I hear...here.

There is more to life than increasing its speed. -Gandhi

It slows me down...I can hear my heart again, beating in my chest. A little fear tinges the back of the neck in such uncontrollable wild. Being at the mercy of larger more hungry beasts, or the unknown path...is good for the mind. It reminds you that you are alive and that you are vulnerable but present. Each step is a new sight, a fresh scent, a familiar or forgotten sound. The corner ahead is anticipated vs the nagging trepidation found in normal day to day activities that push you instead of lure you. Here the next is juicy like a second bite of a late summer peach. You find yourself having to stop just to prolong the slightly orgasmic pleasure of each moment. Walking becomes an act of discipline to see...to taste...to drink it all in.

The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.
-Plato (427-347)

I also am doing the holy work of navigation. Creating a path for others, most importantly my children, to follow. Discovering holy temples to worship in. Unearthing natural anvils that will resound for years with the forging of memories. Each child reawakened when they step onto dirt or slide into water, with their shoes off. What is more rewarding than passing on a love for being free to roam, to explore, to discover? All without cost.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
-Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

I pray that what I find in these moments, in these places, will be as important to those who come after...as they have been to me. That is why I walk in the woods.