How to get your entire system to calm down? For me, I seek solace in tall trees.
Your Higher Power is nudging you (through today’s blog) to find your “woods,” wherever that may be.
Harmony in the Woods by Lucky McCullough
When my brother and I were in the woods, we were in harmony, exploring. No agenda, just seeing what there was to see. Setting off from our childhood home in suburban Ohio, our first stop was always a rotten tree stump where a toad he’d named Barney lived. Sometimes my brother’s two friends from down the street came along. All three boys were okay with me being there. I was welcome.
After weaving our way through the maples, we descended to the widest part of the creek bed where I stood mesmerized, gazing up at the calico of shadow and light. In that cathedral, I felt protected by something beautiful and benevolent, something bigger than me.
But then my brother turned into a teenager and cut me off, his little sister no longer welcome. We have not had a relationship since.
As I write this I am surrounded by oaks and elms in an ashram in Assisi, Italy. On this same trip, I rejoiced with wildflowers in northern Greece, communed with beech trees and black pines in Albania, and greeted spruce in the Dolomites in northern Italy. In the months leading up to my trip, my desire to visit natural places had baffled many. It wasn’t until I added that I was also visiting Italian cities, from Venice down to Rome, that people brightened. They’d say, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there!” or “You’re going to love it! Italy is fabulous!”
Yesterday when I exchanged the clamor of Florence for peace here in the countryside, my entire system calmed. It was such a stark delineation, I couldn’t help but wonder why.
Divine Spirit is with me everywhere: inside buildings and cars, on sidewalks, and in the ocean. But only when I’m in the woods does Our Unity happen without me trying–without me forgiving, reciting, or praying. Without me performing. Without performance, I am free of the self-judgment which pervades my daily trudge.
Living on Maui, I appreciate the warm climate and swimming in the ocean. In Florence, I was impressed by the phenomenal concentration of art. But only the forest delivers that for which I deeply yearn. In the woods, a joyful peace opens my heart.
Last night, as the final moments of sun filtered through the ponderosas, an image floated in: my brother and I in the woods, in harmony with the trees and with each other.
I am thankful for my woodsy childhood experiences and for the privileged opportunity to travel the Earth, finding a sense of safety and wonder under the canopy of trees in multiple countries.
My prayer for you today:
May you find your way to the “woods,” that healing place where you are nourished, wherever that is for you. However long it takes and for however long you get to stay, I trust that the journey will strengthen you and that your time among your “trees” will replenish you.