THE TONIC OF WILDNESS--THOREAU

Henry David Thoreau said that we can never have enough nature.  "We need the tonic of wildness," he wrote.  At the same time that we want to explore and master, we also want mystery and infinity.  Start a thought like this:  "I go into the woods . . . " then finish the sentence.  For me, I go into the woods not to find myself but to enjoy myself.  Maybe you are the same.  Or if not the woods, somewhere else that you love--by a pond or river or the ocean of course, or a sidewalk in a leafy neighborhood. Or your balcony or patio when the moon is out. 

If I find someone, it would be God.  God in the lively birdsong, in the pulsating frogs on my walkway at night, in the gracefully skittish deer, even in the annoyingly rambunctious squirrels.  I go into the woods to find peace, but also excitement, the excitement of discovery:  young ferns by the moss, curly fungus or red-capped mushrooms, the rain-swollen creek, a turtle or even just its empty shell. Sometimes--but hardly ever--I find an antler a deer has shed. We can all find treasures in nature. Do you like rocks?  Quartz or crystal or stones smoothed by water or lava rocks like we found on our trip to Iceland?   We have a friend who collects rocks and we brought her one.    

I'm thinking that I don't go anywhere to "find myself" (so very 60s), but to "be myself."  I can sing in the woods, talk to the trees, revel in the leaves dripping after a storm, collect brush, sit on stones ... in the woods we can be grungy, outside of time.  Being alone in the woods with fallen leaves, thorns and fragrant pines can feel sacred.  God is not only in church or in other people or in our hearts or in the scripture we read.  

What discoveries do you make in nature?  It depends on where we happen to be, I suppose.  Do you sometimes take a picture of a tiny something that enchants you?  A flower or perhaps a spider?  Or just notice it and not take a picture.  At a garden shop I found a begonia with variegated leaves that I had never seen before.  Now it's a pot plant in my kitchen.  I hope it grows huge.  Begonias do that

Now is such a good time of year for finding God outdoors, for being with God as we do the things that we enjoy.  The earth is softer underfoot and the foliage richer in scent as we gravitate toward earlier nights.  This may also be a good time to count our blessings.  No one's life is all blessings, of course.  Our trials can seem more than we can bear, but yet we bear them, we all do, one day at a time, one prayer at a time, one walk in the woods at a time. For this let us give thanks.  

In peace, Nina Naomi