The Thousand Acre Woods

What does one do when the garden is in, home responsibilities are taken care of, and a stretch of glorious down time comes into view?

This is what I do - go for a hike in the thousand acre woods.

Behind my home at the edge of the old field, the proverbial deep, dark forest begins. I stand in front of it, a wall of green rising into the sky above.

I feel like knocking respectfully before I proceed.

Step into these trees and the contrast is stark. On a hot sunny day it is dark, cool, and soothing in here. 

I am instantly distant from all that ails the world. 

Transported, everything slips away.

I move freely with wonder and delight in my natural state.

Unbound. 

Here one can be alive in the purest sense, witness to Nature's silent and expressive language. 

In the thousand acre woods I honour my tree nature, my water nature, my rock nature, my mosquito nature.

When my hike is over, I step out of the forest "a new man", as my dad used to say, ready for whatever life brings.