Connection

In a time of increased uncertainties and divides, it’s important to find alcoves and niches where one feels they belong. For me, that corner is the woods, where I’ll always be learning new things and yet feeling comforted by the unequivocal rhythms of nature.

Feeling connected comes from being in touch, quite literally, with the land. Holding plants, studying leaves, laying on the ground and looking up at the gills of mushrooms. I slip into a different sense there, leaving things behind the gates of the trees that don’t serve me in that time. I let go of things to do, people to email, school to attend. News, media, difficult emotions. I just be, and attempt to ground myself as much as I can.

Sometimes this proves difficult, letting duties and labels slip away. But it’s necessary to at the very least try, and I find that sooner or later I become better attuned to doing so. It’s easier to walk out of my skin and into the woods.

Imbuing myself physically is one of the easiest ways to release. Like I mentioned earlier, getting down on the ground and smelling the soil, looking up at the wind-blown trees, shimmying right up close to tiny lichens on a branch – these are all things I do to find the now and lose myself in a sense of wonder.