The Trees Were Calling

Today the trees were calling to me.

After spending a few days deep in technical details my brain had started to hurt and I could see the trees waving their branches out the window.

“Come and spend time with us,” they said.

“I don’t have time” I replied… “I need to get this done“.

Come they beckoned.

“Go away I don’t have time” I replied and would have closed the curtains if I had any.

“Come” they called from the treetops and even the birds were echoing their call.

Knowing that it was fruitless to resist as they are so persistent, I put down my keyboard, put on my shoes and headed out the door for a powerwalk.

I say powerwalk as I felt I needed to get back and finish what I was doing. Needed to complete the task and get onto the next one.

Briskly walking down to the ocean shoulders back, straight and almost doing a forced march I quickly made my way to the little park close by.

I was still thinking about all the things I needed to do and finish and didn’t see a thing except for the road.

As I hit the forest, a calm came over me and the chatter in my head stopped.

Well… to be truthful it didn’t stop, it just changed its tone.

“Look around,” it said… “breathe deep, smell the ocean, listen to the trees and the call of the birds”.

Gazing out over the ocean I could see the gulls wheeling in the wind as the ducks hunkered down in a sheltered spot to stay out of it.

Gone where the thoughts of “I must get home” and they were replaced with “Hmmm, this looks good. Maybe I’ll just see what is on the beach“.

The wind hit me full force as the beach met my feet and I could feel all the “stuff” that I had been carrying slip away.

“I’ll just walk a little way,” I told myself and before I knew it there was the spit and I was at the point. Ocean on either side of me and the waves crashing on the beach.

It was exhilarating and I started to breathe!

Breathing in the wonder and beauty that surrounded me.

Breathing in the fresh air and expelling the old.

Breathing just for the sake of breathing and noticing how the air felt as it went into my nose and down into my lungs.

As I write this it sounds funny, but at the moment in time, there was just me, the air, and my breathing. Nothing else existed.

Slowly I walked back to the forest noticing all the things that I had missed along the way.

The daffodils that were blooming along the seawall.

The cherry and plum blossoms.

The wild currant bush.

Little things like the periwinkle and the grape hyacinths growing wild along the road.

The blaze of yellow from the forsythia bush.

How could I be so blind? I never even saw these as I walking “to” the park.

It was like having my mind reset and walking in tune with the earth instead of out of key.

The trees know me so well. What would I do without them?