the woods

A simple walk through the woods, drawing out of my soul memories, joy, reflection.  The woods will do that, just kind of uncover the layers you have and expose a little something.

For me, the woods expose the tomboy inside.  She's there, buried deeply, wild eyed and fearless. Sometimes I forgot her.  But the woods remind me.  And for awhile we walk, this wiser, careful version of me and that young, spirited girl.  And I wonder, is she proud of me?  And she wonders, is it as wonderful as I dream?

I reflect on my childhood as a spirited tomboy and mind fills with scenes:

• Wandering through sage brush covered hills
• Wading in the creek and catching minnows
• Riding my bike down gravel roads
• Cutting through a neighbor's field, dodging cow pies
• Jumping from a tree fort in a walnut tree
• Eating plums fresh off the tree
• Making forts out of tumbleweeds
• Building cars with an Erector set
• Walking through a fresh green alfalfa field out to the barn
• Carving roads for Hot Wheels in a ditch behind the house
• Shooting BB guns with my brothers
• Going to school with mud up my backside from riding my bike

When I was eleven we moved away from the open fields and the sage brush and the gravel roads.  I really didn't know that I would miss it like I do.  The most tomboy part of me lives there, fearless in the face of ticks and rattlesnakes and thunderstorms.

I grew to love the woods and the river, finding solace from the difficult years in adolescence.  The woods always had the sweetest, damp smell and I could inhale deeply and feel the cool air.  And still, when I'm in the woods I inhale deeply and it's there, that smell so comforting and reliable.

Now I live on an island in the Puget Sound.  I find solace on beaches, with the tide and the salty air. Yet still, the woods welcome me with open arms, layers of decaying leaves softening my foot steps, mosses displaying their texture in the most brilliant greens.  And for a few moments I revel in what will always feel like home.

 

I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.

Henry David Thoreau