Walking in the Woods

I believe that walking in the woods is good for my soul. When I am surrounded by the trees, I ponder the “authentic” me, I question myself, I wonder what the difference is that I am called to make in this world. For I also believe that I have gifts that I am meant to share. I have an offering to make – a potential impact that is mine alone; and in those moments when I seek to discern that impact, I take to the woods.

The forest calls to me in a way that no other place does. It offers solitude, a quiet space for reflection. It heals me when I have been broken. It fills me up when I have been deflated. It celebrates me when I have been successful. It pushes me to discover what my true limits are. It forces me to slow down and confront that which I try to ignore. It is both nurturing and unforgiving, and it is there that I find myself.

As a child, I spent hours in the woods. Alone or with friends, in play or simply exploring its nooks and crannies – there was something there that beckoned me to enter. It was when I was a child that I first knew that the trees held magic for me. A child’s work is play, and in my play I discovered myself. We had a large bell on our back porch that my mother would clang as a signal to her children to come home from wherever they may be. Most times when I heard that bell I was surrounded by trees.

As I grew older, the forest continued to call and I found myself seeking out that connection as I considered my next steps. Difficulties untangled and truths emerged as the leaves crunched softly beneath my feet. As Dr. Seuss once said, “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” When I am in the woods, the answers often become simple. It is as if my inner voice is freed from its tethers and takes wing, and that which had been concealed in the brush is now soaring across the open sky.

Today, I am a few years older than when I first realized the gift that the forest offers to me. Yet my personal quest continues – I believe I have yet to fully understand what I am called to do. Like a sculpture that slowly reveals itself from within a block of marble, my life’s work is emerging. There are times when I struggle to know how to share what I have to give, when my unique gifts seem not to have a place. There are times when I feel affirmed in my choices, when I have no doubts that a piece of my vocational puzzle has found where it belongs. And at these moments of question and certainty, I take to the forest, because I believe that walking in the woods is good for my soul.