A moment to share

Yesterday, I was feeling a need to reconnect to nature. I've been away for far too long, living a life of straight paths through suburban landscapes. I remembered seeing a large grove of trees not too far from my workplace, so on lunch I drove by to see if there was a place to park so I could wander through. To my delight, I saw that it was a nature preserve with five miles of trails inside. I parked my car, grabbed my mp3 player (I'm listening to The Wheel of Time on audiobook, and there's a few hundred hours of audio to get through, so I listen pretty much any chance I can get), and headed toward the trail.

I entered the green stillness of the woods and was immediately at peace. There was a pleasant breeze, and the smell of life was in the air. I began down one of the wandering trails, snapping pictures with my Blackberry (which is where the avatar came from), and just enjoying myself. About 10 minutes into the walk, I came across a young tree growing right in the middle of the path, in a shaft of sunlight that had been opened up when an older tree had died. A very cool sight to see this one little tree highlighted among the older ones.


A short time later, I was walking further down the trail when I came across an area where the leaf litter ended, and there was a carpet of small green plants in its place. I stopped to take a picture, when suddenly something caught my eye. I took off my sunglasses to get a better look, and there in front of me, not 10 paces away was a deers, standing in the undergrowth. We stood there watching each other for about five minutes minutes, during which the deer lost some interest in me and began grazing
again. It was a moment that meant a great deal to me, and I will always remember it.


I went back to work refreshed, and renewed in both body and spirit. It's moments like this that remind me of what matters in life.

Awesome!

I live surrounded by woods and we get deer and other wild life coming through our yard on a daily basis. It's great to get that connection with untamed nature. It's a very grounding and gives one a sense of connectedness that's hard to feel when you're sitting in an office in front of a computer.

Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

Great post!

Deism - especially the American variety - has always been very closely tied to an appreciation of nature.

We are all modern day Romanticists, I suppose.

Uriah wrote:

Great post!

Deism - especially the American variety - has always been very closely tied to an appreciation of nature.

We are all modern day Romanticists, I suppose.

I think forums like this are the modern day layman's equivalent of the Transcendentalist Societies the sprung up in the north east in the first half of the 19th century.

I've been going to the woods every day since then, and every day I'm walking further and seeing more. I still have yet to have traveled down each trail, which is very exciting. I encounter deer almost every day, and usually more than one at a time. I've seen many birds as well as squirrels, raccoons, fish, and even a snake. I look forward to each hike as my own time with the sublime. I rarely feel as connected to the world as I do on my walks.

There's a park across the street from where I work that I checked out the other day. Unfortuately it's overrun with mosquitoes and poison ivy. It's great to have a resource like you've got so close. I'm envious.

Aaron wrote:

It's great to have a resource like you've got so close. I'm envious.

You get the great flipside of getting to LIVE in the woods, though. I live in the middle of endless suburbia. Before moving out here to be with my wife, I lived in and around Madison, WI, and as much of a metopolitan area as it is, the whole city is still smaller than the suburban area north of Philly, so I would have to drive several miles before I am even in the countryside. I also don't have a real night sky anymore. Even on the clearest nights, I don't see more than maybe 50 stars. It's actually one of the things that I have to do anytime I visit home or anywhere more rural than here- just look up at the night sky. It's my chance to glimpse the infinite.

I went to high school in Madison, and I was born in Wisconsin. Great state for woodsy activities!