(With a nod to John Masefield*)
I must go out to the woods again, to the deep, mysterious woods.
And all I ask is a clear sky and a fairy path that gently pulls.
And the rustle of fallen leaves and the chirp of an overhead bird or two
And sights as common as dirt and sights that are seen by just a few.
A storm blew through this morning. Fortunately, it was nothing like the storms that have battered so many around the country. Still it was windy enough and the rain was determined enough to throw a scattering of yellows leaves, too tired to cling to the trees, around the driveway and landscape.
As I waited for the storm to blow over, I surfed the web and came across a woman’s testimonial to something she called ‘silent walking.’ Intrigued, I read on. It seems that silent walking is taking a purposeful stroll through a forest as far away from the noises of society that you feel you can safely tolerate. Curious. I think this is what we used to call a ‘hike.’
The woman explained that what makes this a silent walk is that you should not carry along an iPod, ear buds or any other listening device to distract you from the experience. I’m assuming she advocates turning off your phone as well, although she didn’t specifically say that. She did say that her silent walks have worked wonders in alleviating her migraines and chronic joint pain.
Leaving aside for now the obvious health benefits of walking to improve mobility and relieve stress, I think this relates to what I talk about in my book, Under the Sacred Canopy.
We are drawn to the woods. Walking among leafy giants can be reassuring and comforting in a way that I don’t think we can attribute to anything other than our evolutionary biology. We are creatures of Nature. When we stray too far away from it, we are lost and stressed. This manifests as headaches, anxiety, body aches in general – a whole host of aches and pains that modern science can treat but never fully exorcise.
The cure is a big dose of Nature, especially in the Fall. Crisp air, crunching leaves, trees shaking off their Summer coats for a riot of colorful canopies – all of this makes the coming months special and worth the time clawed out of busy schedules to indulge in a bit of Autumn luxury.
* John Edward Masefield OM was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best-known works are the children's novels The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights, and the poems The Everlasting Mercy and "Sea-Fever".
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