Tall trees surround me and a road cuts
through and past me. The road isn’t
paved, it’s dirt. It looks like it’s an
old carriage-way. It disappears into the distance; into the fog of the chilly
morning. But I’m feeling as still as the
forest trees around me. They reach for
the sky with their bare branches and trunks naked to the air around them; and
the fern surrounds them hiding the moist, fertile soil.
All I can hear is the dripping of the dew
from the night before coming off the leaves and onto the ground. Its sound is almost deafening amongst the
silence of the nakedly-clad forest. The
air is clean, wet and pure and I feel as though I don’t need to move from my
spot.
I feel very peaceful.
I could stay here for a long time and not
have to move.
This place is a sheer joy to be in as my
mind doesn’t have to think about anything outside of here; and this is
good. There’s no computers to
consider. I can’t hear any highway
traffic. No sirens, nobody else shouting
and no interference of any kind… it’s wonderful. My mind can settle down, be quiet and let go
of stress.
I like this.
It’s lovely.
I wish I could stay here longer.
Birds sing and echo off each other in the
distance amongst the fog as the sun clears the surrounding mountains. I look up at the sky and it’s changed from
the apricot hue of the sunrise to a light baby blue of early morning. Soon, the fog will lift and I’ll see the
forest for what it really is. I’ll stay
here until it does.
And slowly, the low cloud – as that’s what fog
really is – shifts slowly away, revealing the forest’s rich green colours. The starkness of the trees as they appear
like sentinels reaching high up to the sky from this one area, asking and wanting help – praying for it - and yet stuck that way until the Gods give
it to them. And it seems they didn’t get
it; as they are like this now, kneeling in rows like humans in Nature’s church
praying for all to be good with Gaia.
The fern of the undergrowth – looking like
many plants, but really it’s one plant spread over a large distance acting like
ground cover – gives off a gorgeous rich green hues mixed with reds, yellows and
other lovely colours; looking like an impressionist’s painting but on Mother
Nature’s canvas.
I now wish I had brought a canvas, paints
and easel with me.
There’s always something I wish for when I
venture into these places, and never bring with me when I arrive.
On closer inspection, these trees are lined
up in corridors so that they line up with each other, to curve away into the
distance from me. As the fog finally
clears completely, I find this forest seems to go on forever. I love how it all has a beautiful, ghostly
feel to it.
But I’m not spooked – why would I be? It’s
such a pretty place in its own way. And
seeing I don’t wish to leave, I might just walk over to one of the trees with
very little ground cover surrounding the bottom of it and sit for a while.
Taking in the loveliness of this place as
the day wears on.
Breathe in the fresh alpine air while I
listen to nothing.
Know in my heart that I can come back here
whenever I want… but also know that I can’t stay because it’s not a place I can
readily come to all the time.
This is something I hate, something I
despise about this place; not being able to come back here; well not
physically.
At least I know there’s a place where the
air is fresh, there’s no horrible outside noise and I can listen to nature at
its very best…
Somewhere.
