Thoughts on a Old Growth Forest

 Excerpt from my car journal:

   Once a few years ago I stood in a forest where the trees were hundreds of years old. They were so immense, the roots everywhere. They had withstood countless fires and storms. There was such an atmosphere there ~ such a stillness ~ such a communion. There had been so many things these trees had witnessed, and I could feel it all there ~ the lingering of it, and also a steadfast peace you don't feel in a young tree grove. As they grow and their roots grow there is a knowing in them that you can feel. They KNOW all is well ~ they live in wellness ~ they trust and live out that trust. The Ocean lives it out and the age old trees, and who I am ~ this trust and peace calls to me and tells me things I don't understand but simply love. All of us were created to feel it ~ to be filled with it ~ to love without the words. It empties out the dross and gives us glimpses of true light. And when that comes the essence of us and the simple joys we felt when young have a place again. I remember my moments of freedom as a child ~ of deep welling joy ~ and I think it's because I felt a communion that I did not often feel. A communion with the moment and with my surroundings and with beauty.