Into The Woods

Just behind our house is the forest.  The land drops off and we walk down, down, down to get to the bottom where we are surrounded by forest.

At the very bottom there is a small pond -- but the journey to get there is what its all about.  For there are any number of things to see if I look carefully.  The other day I came upon these red mushrooms -- a blast of color in a world of green and brown.

There is a bench there but sadly a southern forest in the summer is no place to stand or sit still. Things are crawling and buzzing and 'alive'.  Its better to keep moving.

Do you suppose the fairies dance in this bed of ferns?

Time to head back up the stairs and leave this deep forest in its mystery.

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir

Do You Believe in Fairies?

I do!!  They must be there, although I’ve never actually seen one.  Sadly I am left to try to make some sightings of my own.

When I walk on the edge of the woods I see this.  Is this not the perfect place for a fairy or two to hide out when I approach?

 

Do they come to the pond to look at their reflections?  I know my husband says that it’s only the frogs that I hear jumping back into the water when I arrive, but I’m not quite so sure.  If only those frogs could talk (other than the non-stop croaking they seem to be so fond of).

Isn’t this leafy, fern grotto just perfect for an afternoon romp – is that why the ferns seem to move at my approach – because the fairies are running for better cover as I arrive?

 

As evening comes my husband says “look at the fireflies”.  I look at those blinking lights darting here and there.  I’ve never seen a firefly up close (I tried unsuccessfully as a child to catch them in bottles) so I can’t absolutely vouch for the fact that those aren’t fairy lights.  If they must be fireflies then perhaps they are the carriers of the lanterns for the fairies?

Have I convinced you?  I hope so, because I think everyone ought to believe in something magical, mystical and beautiful.

"The fairies break their dances
And leave the printed lawn."

- A. E. Houseman

Stand Still

We took a walk up one of the trails in the Pisgah Forest the other day.  It was early morning and dew was still on some of the leaves.  We were literally surrounded on all sides - above and below - with green.

We walked across streams.

We wandered through and beside and past all manner of ferns, mosses, grasses, shrubs and trees.  Except for little slices of blue sky that sometimes appeared above - we were in a green world.

At the end of the trail we were greeted by this waterfall -- pouring down with a rushing noise. 


Lost
Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.
An old Native American elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner, in The Heart Aroused - Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America by David Whyte, Currency Doubleday, New York, 1996.