Yesterday the kids were still in school so I went to Dingmans Falls again.....and was by myself there for a bit.....and as I walked through the woods I thought of how many times I have felt the woods have had a symbolic meaning in my story......in the beginning I was deeply lost in the woods....feeling the darkness overwhelming......not being able to see past the trees so to speak.....but then it got lighter in those same woods.....brighter....calmer.....and then I literally took to the woods......any chance I could get and I found deep healing among the trees......the woods are magical....I truly mean that.......I would venture to say that if anybody gave hiking and spending time in nature for a consistent amount of time a chance, they too would feel that magic.....I get I am an earth sign and drawn to those things......along with my fire sign stuff, but there is nothing like it once you step foot in........the air is different in the woods.....cleaner and purer.....and medicinal.......I had read that if you spend 2 hours a week in nature it boosts your immune system by 40 percent!!! That is kind of something right??? And now when I go in the woods sometimes I go to pray.....and speak to God.....and find I feel closest to him there.....and to my spirituality.......I have talked about that.....my spirituality is deep and wide.....encompassing many things that speak to my heart and intuition and soul.......and the woods bring me deeply to those things........Mads asked me at the church picnic this past weekend if God had a wife.....and I sort of chuckled initially and defaulted to Pastor Niel;-) and he said that wisdom in theology is a feminine term.....so that that is how they think of "God's wife" as the wisdom alongside it all.....and that there is big story surrounding it all.....I found that fascinating and would like to learn more because well....of course wisdom is a feminine term lol:) But that is how I feel among the trees......that there is deep wisdom found there......all of the pieces working so effortlessly together......the sounds.....the smells.....the life.......all of it.....and I have found that nothing that finds me in my life outside of nature can't be solved by entering the woods and taking a deep breath.....breathing all that goodness in........my soul immediately settles......and maybe some of my peace that I have found comes from that practice......and I have spoken before of how it also makes me feel present......really truly present in the moment I am in......aware of the beauty that surrounds me......and so I suppose the woods were an adversarial thing to me initially in this story......feeling lost in them......overwhelmed by their vastness and barrenness at times too.....and the darkness I felt amid those initial trees.........and somehow along the way I made friends with them......and literally sought them out to help heal me.......I am never less grateful for the nudges that found me on this journey to help me heal......to propel me toward the places I was meant to find......I will never not hike now in my life.....I plan on hiking the most beautiful places in the US and share it with anybody I can.....There are some gorgeous places out west that are calling my name:) the kids and I are planning 3 hikes a week this summer at a minimum when they are done with school......it is hard to say that something is for everybody.....because as humans we are all so different.....bringing different awareness, and needs, and a particular set of circumstances to any given situation.....but I would challenge most anybody to try and hike some and see what they find there.......giving the magic of the woods a chance to seep into their soul too......:) Happy Wednesday!
jperuso
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