Photo: L. Weikel

Immersed in Nature

I hope you had a chance to get outside today to take in the brilliance of this early October perfection. Oh my goodness, from the crisp clarity of the atmosphere to the leaves on the trees just beginning to tease of the palette to come, today was most definitely a day to spend as immersed in nature as possible.

I’ll admit, at the moment I have about four running ‘to do’ lists ebbing and flowing between my Day-Timer (yeah, I’m a pen-and-paper list maker) and my journal and even the backs of a couple of envelopes. I’ll also admit to being a tad obsessed with tracking the ongoing drama and cascade of disinformation emanating from the Administration.

In the Cards

I made an effort to listen to the Medicine Cards* I chose this morning: Deer with Grouse underneath. Deer, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, urges ‘gentleness’ as a primary message. Grouse has a lot to do with motion and encourages us to pay attention to how and why we move about in our lives.

A factor crucial to crossing off a few of the things on my lists required me to run out to an art supply store about 45 minutes away. It’s weird to me how different it feels now to pick up and go to the store. There’s an undercurrent of stress to it, which surprises me each time I encounter that tension and identify it. Traveling to places where there are a lot of people walking around has an effect on me now that I honestly never would’ve dreamt of a year ago.

After I secured a small tool that I hope will solve all my current creative issues (I’ll find out tomorrow), I noticed how edgy I was feeling. I was driving home but knew I could not go home until I made a much-needed pit stop at the Tohickon. I needed to honor the main card I’d chosen (Deer) and be gentle with myself – especially after running around doing errands and dealing with people (Grouse).

At the Creek

I pulled up to my favorite spot, where, depending upon the depth of the creek on any given day I can walk out into the middle of the flow and sit on a boulder or I can just lower my windows and stay in the car, watching the water stream past only yards away from me. Today I chose to remain in my car and write in my journal. There’s so much going on both in the outside world and in my own inner life that giving myself permission to simply honor it all by recording it felt like a gentle indulgence.

At one point, a huge gust of wind came and swirled through the upper branches of the trees lining the Tohickon. The noise created was hard to describe – far, far more than a shushing and yet with overtones or perhaps undertones of birdsong. But then I realized, looking up into the sky that there were hundreds and possibly thousands of leaves cascading through the air. There was an entire layer of leaves that did not look like they’d come from any of the trees near me that were definitely being carried by winds aloft. I had to squint to make sure they were in fact leaves and not a flock of tiny migrating birds.

I tried to take a photo but it doesn’t even remotely capture the magic – not even when I try to zoom in so you can see the leaves a little better.

Deer Again

Later, Karl and I took one of our longer walks and encountered a field full of deer. I took it as a good sign that they seemed to be completely at ease with us as we walked along the road right beside them. (Granted, the deer around here are a rather entitled lot, as was evidenced the other day when two walked into our driveway and started munching on our hostas.) But I also know they pick up on our energy and it’s not uncommon for them to bolt if our energy is too jagged for their liking.

So all in all, I feel as though – at least for this afternoon – I successfully navigated my little tributary of the treacherous waters that come with living in the midst of a pandemic, extraordinary economic strife, and an unprecedented assault on our democracy (to name a few stressors affecting all of us) and managed to find some calm.

I cannot thank the gentle spirit of Tohickon Creek and the winds aloft enough for sweeping my head and heart free.

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(T-419)