I have been a cloud and star-gazing for as long as I can remember. There are photos of me as an infant, held over my mothers shoulder, chin and eyes lifted. She told me it was the only way she could get me to stop crying. She had to take me outside and walk around where I would lift my little face to the sky.
As a young girl, I would lay beneath the willow tree in our yard, communing with the fae. I would imagine them dancing around me, the little sparkles of light that twinkled in the grass and along the tree roots. My brother, a monkey for sure in a past life, would climb as far up into the branches as he could. Meanwhile, I was content with the grass sewn between my toes, back pressed against the earth, hair fanned out above me as the leaves swayed and the sunlight danced along every surface it touched. Starting at the roots, I would scan the tree from bottom to top, appreciating its strength and grace and all that it provided me and the world. It was a home to bugs and animals; it provided me with clean air to breathe; and if I needed it, it could build me a home, or furniture, or even paper to write my stories on. Willows were always one of my favorites. How beautiful their long drooping leaves were, dancing in the breeze, twirling and playing with one another.
As often as I can, I still do this. Find a park, a trail, a forest to get lost in and I make sure to spend time with the trees.
My children asked me my favorite color; I took them outside and pointed to the leaves on the tree in the yard. “Do you see those leaves near the top? The ones that the sunlight is hitting? Do you see that color? That’s my favorite color. The color of sunlight on nature.”
Though I can appreciate all of nature, the forest is home for me, but it’s something different for everyone. Some people love the desert, some the wild prairie, some the mountains, and for many – the ocean. We need to slow down more often, and spend time in nature. Why? Because just like how we appreciate our bodies, want to nourish them with the right food and exercise, we need to appreciate mother nature and what she provides. If we don’t slow down to spend time with her, to appreciate her, we will forget how much we love her and need to provide for her too.
We are nature – and nature is powerful.
The recharge I get when remembering the power of nature, and feeling my connection to it, is the most rejuvenating
Nature HEALS You!
