I go alone and unseen into the forest. The underbrush appears out of the lush greenness within. As the path narrows, I penetrate the edges of the denser growth, where I begin to sense a quiet that sings without a score.
The harmony begins at my feet, now invisible beneath the fronds, and amplifies throughout my body. My ears absorb the quiet noise. They have just begun to hear. My head grows cool as if covered with a dense growth of emerald mosses. My mouth forms syllables of wind and rain soon to arrive. The sun, the clouds, and the sky conspire to create a coastal fog, and daylight softens into leafy shadows.
My mind’s eye sees legs, arms, and hands in perspective with the massive trunk and limbs of an ancient and fearless redwood giant. Dazzled, my eyes dive along its surface and pause to consider the forward motion of a bug going somewhere higher and higher. Here, I am in harmony with nature from which I stem and with the spirit of the towering cathedral that is the forest.
Time dissolves as I run my fingers through the earth and settle into a cradle of roots. I stay entwined with roots and earth until I know my place in the Universe. My old self sheds its bonds and takes a step into a new Self with which to see life differently. I am ready to tread the world in a different cadence than when I arrived, and I remember to thank a stone before leaving this sacred place.
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