Yes, Sunday Serenity is back, starting off with a forest walk. With all that 2020 has going on, it seems like a good time to bring back a weekly time for reflection.
Let’s begin our walk. No cell phone, no TV, not even a hint of a news cycle. The only tweets are from the birds high up in these trees.
Breathe deep.
Let the forest soak into your lungs. The damp air is a welcome reprieve from short, anxious breaths and smoke-filled air.
Look down.
Let the forest fill your eyes. Notice the colors of the leaves starting to change. Time is passing even though the days and weeks seem longer than whatever normal used to be. The days are shorter, and the forest is steadily moving towards winter.
See the details.
Notice the beauty of these leaves. Their growing is all done for this year. Yet still they provide shape and color to the forest’s palette, highlighting the green that remains.
Step back.
Look out at the forest beyond the trail. It’s full of life: a darting deer, a chipmunk scurrying through the bushes, a cardinal darting from branch to branch.
Keep going.
Suddenly, the forest and trees give way to blue sky, white clouds, and mountains that go on forever. You feel so small and so young compared to the breadth and age of the view before you. Perspective is restored.
You take a deep breath as you turn in a circle, committing this view, this perspective to memory. And then, oh, so slowly, you begin the walk back home.
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.
Beautiful photographs and poetic words which brought me right to the places you wrote about. Thanks for the woodsy breather.
Thank you, Andrea <3
Thanks for allowing us to slow down and appreciate the beauty of your photos and the wisdom of your words.
YES! finally got a chance to get out in the forest and just breathe. The Japanese call it “forest bathing” and prescribe it as a medication for kids and elders – so appropriate.
I agree with Fiona!
Annie, once again you’ve outdone yourself! I feel quite relaxed with a sense of awe!
Thank you! I so wanted to share some of the peace I’ve been finding on the trails.