Tag Archives: connecting with Nature

What if Nature, the woods and trees miss us as much as we miss them?

What If The Trees Miss Us? Haiku

What if the trees deep/
in the woods miss us as much/
as we’re missing them?

Back Story:
The other day I was walking through the woods at Spirit Tree Farms, and I felt like I should spend some time at the base of The Old Woman of the Woods, “our” pre-Civil War giant oak tree. As I was feeling her bark, connecting with her, I felt a deep melancholy, a sense of longing, a sense of missing her. I wondered why I’d stayed away from connecting with her, and Nature, and God’s creations, for so long.

Suddenly, I was away that the feeling was mutual. It was almost as if she whispered “Hello, Boy. Welcome back. I’ve missed you. I’ve been lonely for you.”

I’d never thought of that concept before, that maybe the trees miss us! That thought inspired this haiku.

Homage To AMMentoring, Still

Upon reading Calming the Wilderness, riffing.

It feels strange to,
at last, again,
peel back the flap of another
large, manilla envelope.

Departure

Decades past,
the first one from her
contained guidance,
wisdom,
and introduction
to an unfamiliar,
yet exciting and welcome,
urban life.

I was brought in,
feted,
playing with the Big D
boys and girls now,
uncertain,
wrapped in a glass and steel
citadel
along a Northwest Expressway,
(long before I settled in a
specific Northwest expressway.)

She, always smiling,
eyes shining,
always kind,
giving wisdom,
guiding me through
the intracacies of even higher
las places I yearned to be.

Voyage

Then, I left.
What a long, strange trip!
Touching base with her
actually rarely,
yet constantly mentally,
as though she were
some reality Ebenezer,
not the man,
but the touch stone.

Return

Now we reconnect,
after our journeys took us
far and away,
and we each escaped
that cold urbanity
(once more, she teaches!),
to find our home,
our rest,
our real core sacred selves.

From the second envelope
slides black and white wisdom
about She who I love
so dearly,
and who she now,
clearly,
loves
and understands
at least as equally
as I.

Thumbing the pages,
gazing at letters, symbols:
A strange feeling
of recognition,
joy,
and gratitude.

The voice is so familiar,
with sense of connection.
My heart!
My soul!
My spirit!
swells,
and tears well
up and out
as I read of
Nature observations
and insights,
and wisdom,
and feelings,
hersyetmine.

Thousands of miles
and dozens of years
apart,
we’re even using
the same words,
receiving the same
inspiration,
talking to messengers
sent from the sky,
forests,
plains,
mountains:
Birds,
plants,
animals,
stars,
water,
wind,
Earth,
Heaven.

I’m curious if she,
as once,
is now again as connected
to Saint Francis
as I am.
All creatures….

I shake my head
in wonder
and amazement.
Such similarites!
I yearn to see
her portal,
Sangre de Cristo
and Land of Enchantment,
and hope to let her
experience ours,
Spirit Tree
and vortex folds
along the Chickamauga.

Thought:
Perhaps,
through words,
we are connecting
and connected.

The Source is the same,
whether in desert,
on mountain or plain,
through creeks and fields,
grasslands, forests,
or places I can’t yet pronounce.

I’m grateful
and moved beyond words
(and yet, here they are!)
for the truths
and her gift(s)
that this manilla envelope
revealed.

==========
For your own copy of the book of Nature observation poetry that prompted this piece, click: Annemarie Marek’s Calming the Wilderness.

Getting Outside Often: Nature Prose

I was catching up on posting past writing, and didn’t know I’d already posted this piece on Getting Outside in www.NaturesGuy.com.

We need to get outside, to breathe fresh air, to see the sun, to feel Nature.

There was a time, when I worked at Microsoft near Seattle, where I never saw the sun. Even now, memories of sitting in a closet-like room with no windows, where I had to walk out a door and look down a long, narrow hallway to the small window a hundred feet away, to even see a peek outside, causes my stomach to twist in knots, my heart to clamp down, my throat to tighten and my head to hurt. To be kept away from the outdoors, to not FEEL Nature on a regular basis, can’t be good!

I knew it back then, in my gut, and it turns out that my desire to feel nature was right! Recent studies are showing that activities such as taking walks outside, sitting in the sun, forest bathing, can all significantly reduce stress, anxiety, hypertension, and many other modern ailments.

My current “office” lets me sit in front of a window and look out over wildflowers, many types of trees, out onto a field of corn, wheat, elderberries, squash, more wildflowers, and more. Past the rolling rills and hills, over the West Chickamauga Creek, are the stately trees of a 5,300 acre Chickamauga National Military Park. Beyond that, Lookout Mountain rises up in the distance. Birds, butterflies and other bugs flit about. Squirrels, rabbits and the occasional deer scamper past my view. The sky changes colors throughout the day, providing a new scene every time I look up from my computer screen (which is fairly frequently!) In short, from my office, I can view nature in all its Northwest Georgia glory.
But that’s still not enough. Why? I don’t completely FEEL Nature.

Feel Nature = Be IN the Outdoors!

The studies I’ve read, and the way I sense, verify that, to feel nature, to get the benefits of being in nature, you have to get outdoors. These studies say that as little as 15 minutes outside, or exposing yourself to nature, has a calming, relaxing, healing impact that can last up to two hours!
Here on Spirit Tree Farms, we try to grow a lot of our own food. We try to eat healthy. We make our own elderberry juice. We forage and make teas and salads out of native plants. Yet, too often, we stay inside for long periods of time, content with just looking out the windows at the natural beauty that surrounds us.
That doesn’t seem to be enough.
I can feel my soul, my spirit, my body start to clamp down, start to feel the angst I felt in those days at Microsoft. So I’ve resolved to feel nature more, to get outside, breathe fresh air, feel the breeze, hear the rustling of the leaves, the far-away murmuring roar of the West Chickamauga Creek rushing over the rocks of the prehistoric fishing weir, to smell the musty autumn leaves or the summer’s passion flower blooms, to feel the sun (or the rain or the mist or the humors of the night) on my face, to connect to the Earth by taking my shoes off and getting grounded.
Even when it’s cold, I can take a few moments to step outside, hold my hands out, yawp at the setting sun, wave to Orion high in the night sky, welcome the dawn of a new day, discover a new plant, bird or bug I’ve never noticed before. I can take that time to really feel Nature.

Feel Nature To Get Connected

When I take the time to really feel Nature, I can tell I’m connecting with the Universe. And it’s not just reconnecting with the land I’m on here on the Catoosa / Walker County line in Northwest Georgia, USA. It’s reconnecting with my purpose, with what God wants me to do. It’s getting back in tune, back in synch, tuning in to a universal harmonic that permeates all because it is in all and through all. To feel Nature aligns my heart, head and soul not only with me, myself, but with the greater All.
What benefits will you find
when you take the time
to feel Nature?