Karl Brown - Natural - Thanksgiving Backyard Visit

When I first learned I would need to write a second nature journal entry I knew exactly where I would end up at: my backyard. I am fortunate enough to be blessed with a backyard that is over an acre and heavily forested with a stream and various flora and fauna, the ideal location to go out on miniature spiritual journey. I also wondered if I could take some of the ideas I had learned in the class and use them to transform my backyard experience into something more. I waited until I was home for thanksgiving, put on the warmest jacket I could find, and set out to try and achieve peace with myself. At the very least I will get a long overdue walk in my woods out of it. I open my back door to the chilly Thanksgiving air and start to walk down the hill into the woods. A deer scatters in the distance as the sound of leaves crunching alert him to my presence.

I start to think about what I am trying to go for as I begin my descent. A lot of the longer term goals start to seem unrealistic, as I simply don’t have the time or land to walk for hours at a time. I consider sitting down and waiting for animals to let their guard down and walk out into the open but it is chilly and I decide I’d prefer to keep my blood flowing and not stop moving for that long period of time. I think back to the time on the Nolan Trail with the class, and try to recall what I wanted out of that outdoor session which I did not get.  I eventually decide to try to get to a point of hesychia by slowly taking in the nature that surrounds me with my eyes and hands, something that I just did not seem to achieve despite my efforts on the Nolan.

The locale is admittedly a bit untraditional. The first area I find myself in is the forest of Bamboo that has sprouted up many years ago, a foreign sight in the Northern Virginia landscape outside of being an invasive species. This area just does not seem to be doing it for me, and I move on.  I reach a more wooded area, and things start to feel right. I start to sink in to the forest a bit, brushing my hand up against the trees and brush as I walk past. I begin feeling the very tip of what my untrained mind perceives as hesychia, relaxed and absorbed in the beauty of nature without any real pressing concerns. This continues on for a while until I reach the creek. The lack of physically touching the surrounding foliage as I walk past when things clear out to make way for the creek serves to sever my cherished state which I had been basking in. Disappointed and cold, I make my way across and back up to my house in order to warm up, satisfied that I had made more progress towards achieving my end goal than whilst on the Nolan Trail.