“I will wait here in the fields to see how well the rain brings on the grass.
In the labor of the fields longer than a man’s life I am at home. Don’t come with me. You stay home too.
I will be standing in the woods where the old trees move only with the wind and then with gravity.
In the stillness of the tress I am at home. Don’t come with me.
You stay at home too.”
-Wendell Berry
Category Archives: Nature
Everyone is Connected on the Trail
This quote is from the book The Unlikely Thru-Hiker, and is taken from a moment the author experienced in Virginia, as he’s gifted with “trail magic” – any kindness bestowed unexpectedly and without payment. Ann is one of the bestowers of this trail magic, in this instance sustenance along the trail, that this hiker has happened upon. She asks for a minute to share these words with the trekkers that have assembled, after ensuring each of them has selected a marble from the bag she’s passed around after their meal.
The words seemed particularly relevant right now, although directed to those who undertake a long distance hike – but maybe that’s exactly what we’re all on right now – a long distance hike outside of the norm.
“You’re probably wondering why we are doing this trail magic, what is our motivation. This is not a religious sermon or anything like it. This is purely from our hearts. We trail angels feel honored to assist any hiker on their journey, whether they are section hikers or going the distance. Most people live in this world asleep. We go through our routines, have our habits, are seduced by the illusions of advertising and consumerism, which create a life lacking in authenticity and integrity and sometimes real love.
You make a choice to leave this mundane world. You chose something so radically different that you had to view your life in a different way, even if only for a short time. Life gets simpler. You listen to your body when you are hungry, tired or sore. You are more aware of your surroundings, more connected to nature. You are in tune with the rhythms of the seasons and weather. The pace allows you to see details some may not see in their lifetime.
You are left to your thoughts without anything like television, videos or computers to lull you into a brain-dead state. You visit shadows and pass doors to your history that you have tightly shut. If you are lucky, you get glimpses of your authentic self without judgement but with acceptance instead.
You don’t need much. Your world is on your back. Relationships with other people have a different meaning. You realize you are in a big community where everyone is connected by the trail. You are willing to talk to strangers, ask for help, and provide help. You also provide opportunities for us, the mundane folks, to show our best, to be helping, giving, and compassionate. You allow us to resonate goodness to the world.
All of this results in you learning more about who you are and what is important. When the individual human spirit grows, it impacts the world. The collective AT community helps to resonate a unique energy, a different way of being, and I can’t help but think it has a ripple effect on the rest of the world. It is a chance for us to be roused from our sleep and see that we, too, can create a simpler, more compassionate, authentic life.
The marble is a reminder that, any any moment, something wonderful can show up in your life. Whether it be a hiker feed, a cooler full of sodas, a much-needed ride to town, a lovely sunset, a profound conversation, or someone letting you use their shower. Mini miracles, magic, and unexpected gifts will come to you at the exact moment you need them. Let the marble help you remember that moment, and put energy into the marble every time magic happens. Then, on the days that are hard, pull out the marble and remember: Around the bend something is waiting for you. Have faith, soak up the energy you put in the marble, and move on.”
Ann as quoted in The Unlikely Thru-Hiker by Derick Lugo
We are, always have been, connected by our trail, our journey through life, our humanity, our love for our families, our need for nature’s gifts. We are honored to assist each other and to offer a little magic along the way. We realize in our new normal, how little we really need – our health, our loved ones, food and shelter. We want to be allowed to resonate goodness to the world as Ann said.
And we know that when the individual spirit grows, it impacts the world (again, as Ann said).
I don’t have a marble, but a stone in my pocket, in my car console, on the window sill, in the yard, to remember and acknowledge the magic and the gifts along the way.
“Those who don’t believe in magic…will never find it.”
-Ronald Dahl
Font of Healing
We woke to a soft dusting of snow on the ground here in northwest Montana… and the sweetest flakes falling softly. It felt like a benediction. A cleansing. A layering of love. A pure foundation for the solitude and silence that will prevail today. Time for reflection of all those precious blessings of beauty, love, nature’s embrace and spring unfolding that surround us so abundantly in these uncertain times.
I feel their strength and honor the gifts.
I will take in no media today to better deepen into this…
“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy.”
-C.S. Lewis
“Solitude is for me a font of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words.”
-Carl Jung
May our world and the earth be healed.
With Intention
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
-L. R. Knost
The Lifeline to All That is Real
“…I feel that the world is mine again, as if I’m privy to the special secret that evades so many people because they’ve unintentionally used concrete or a million other barriers to separate themselves from the truth; that the tall, slender trees beside me and the spongy soil beneath my boots are the lifeline to all that is real, all that sustains-all that matters.”
-Christine Carbo (from A Sharp Solitude)
The Perfect Love of Spring
Spring by Mary Oliver
“Somewhere a black bear has just risen from sleep and is staring
down the mountain. All night in the brisk and shallow restlessness of early spring
I think of her, her four black fists flicking the gravel, her tongue
like a red fire touching the grass, the cold water. There is only one question:
how to love this world. I think of her rising like a black and leafy ledge
to sharpen her claws against the silence of the trees. Whatever else
my life is with its poems and its music and its glass cities,
it it also this dazzling darkness coming down the mountain, breathing and tasting:
all day I think of her – her white teeth, her wordlessness, her perfect love.”
-Mary Oliver
Let Self Isolation Bring You to the Forest
“Get some fresh air, some vitamin D on your face, your arms, legs and spine.
Get to know your local and abundant wild edible and medicinal weeds.
Explore your landscape, learn about you within that place.
Let self isolation bring you to the forest, hill, meadow, ocean, parkland or river.
Let its goodness feed your heart.
Journal, draw, create ritual, laugh, climb, swim, rest, sing or scream in these places; letting them hold you, as therapist, friend and ally.
Nature has your back, let it come to you.”-Brigit Anna McNeill
Our Rarest Commodity
“As our world becomes increasingly polluted with noise, silence is becoming our rarest commodity. Through all the madness, how can we possibly hear what the Earth is so patiently trying to tell us? Wilderness is our only hope. The one place we can always come back to.”
-Scott Stillman
In Gratitude for the Rain
Ecstatic in the bounty of the rain today.
Its waters slow sinking into our earth,
A deep and boundless love offering,
A joyful pour of life.
Today, I am in gratitude for the rain.
“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head
with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”
-Langston Hughes
“How quick we are to find the rainbow,
before being thankful for the rain.”
-Dieter Uchtdorf
The Untrimmable Light of the World
“Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?”-Mary Oliver
