Getting Lost
These days, with all the profound levels of disconnect and self-importance in the world I have felt an increasing need need to disappear and get lost in nature: to find something that makes sense to me.
In the forest everything simply is what it is - totally indifferent to us.
I appreciate the perfect order of it all.
It is a celestial order and harmony and balance are part of that.
Beyond the obvious benefits of escape there are simple moments of sublime beauty and sensual grace.
Standing in the same spot for five day on a painting, I begin to really notice things:
Like the smell of the freshest water carried by wind over pine needles and ferns.
Or the way flickering light through the trees animates the forest floor.
Or how my whole body lights-up after a swim or the slight give of the moss beneath my feet as I stand and paint.
I begin to blend into my environment.
Here's the best part:
My self-importance evaporates and is replaced with a grateful sense of aliveness.
I begin to vibrate with my surroundings and leave the limiting confines of myself.
It all sounds somewhat obvious until one actually gives it time and touches the faintest edges of a feral and primal remembrance.
In that faintly familiar part of my animal brain I am happy, balanced and at peace.
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