Monday, October 21, 2013
Nature.. One of my first encounters with it.
As I walk through the woods hand in hand with the two men that at this point in my life are the only men in my life, I am dreading it. The wet soggy mud that sticks to the bottom of my pretty white shoes that my mother bought me disgusts me. How do people do this for fun? What is fun about nature? How can my father and brother really find this fun? The farther I walk the bigger fit I start to throw, screaming and crying is doing me no good and the bugs and rain are getting to me. What do I do? How do I get out of here? Woods all around me I cant see anything but trees and mud. Crunching the leaves step by step I come up with a plan. I sit down in the middle of the mud and bugs and wetness. I refuse to get back up. I am stuck there. My mind refuses to let me move. Finally, with great force I am picked up and carried the rest of the way through this nature walk. I dry my tears and begin to listen to the conversation around me. "Look its a squirrel!" " Dad can we camp out here!?" "Look I found a hiking stick" , I start to enjoy the walk more and more. Its so peaceful and calming. No one to bother you, just you and mother nature, bonding to say the least. Maybe this isn't so bad. Maybe I will come back. I want to tell my mom about this. Suddenly the white shoes are not a big deal anymore. I have just made a new friend.
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I wanted to comment before on this, but I had tears in my eyes just from reading the first lines. It brought to mind days when I walked through the pasture and orchard on my grandparents' farm. My mom was always fussing about my sister and me not getting dirty when we would go out on Saturday mornings with our father and grandfather. Getting dirty? In a woods? On a Saturday morning? Surely not. But we had the best times with the two men in our lives. Discovering new leaves and insects, picking blackberries and raspberries (and eating them straight from the bushes instead of washing them first--HORRORS!). What fun we had and how dirty we were when we returned.
ReplyDeleteI just saw this post! Its funny now how the simplest things can make kids happy. We think about our past and just thing about how doing something as simple as walking through nature with family but now a days its like kids need money and electronics or they have no fun. We should all appreciate the things god has already set right in front of us rather than the things we have to buy.
ReplyDeleteNow you're thinking like a Transcendentalist!... I wonder if Thoreau ever worried about his shoes during his sojourn at Walden. Haha!
ReplyDeleteNature is a wondrous encounter, filled with sights and sounds that draw the dream abuzz. There is inspiration all about us as we traverse the forest. Countless writers have been drawn to the allure of the wood, inspired by the feel and air of Nature: The Romantic writers, Transcendentalists, Thoreau, Blake, Whitman, Lord Byron, Keats, the list goes on forevermore. So the next time to take a jaunt though the woods, carry a pen and paper with you, take note of your surroundings, and write.