Silent Thunder

It had been awhile since I had walked in the woods and listened to the sounds surrounding me. Life has been busy with shows and getting product to stores amongst other things. The canoe had become a mode of travel more often as I searched for loons with young chicks for most of August and then the shores for shorebirds beginning to migrate south for the upcoming winter. Things were changing but my desire to be in the woods was not lessening and in fact was growing each day.

Today was the day I returned to the woods. I walked a trail not far from my home in Steep Falls. A trail I had walked many times was one I was happy to return too. As I began to walk I could feel my heart race and my mind searching for something.

I needed to slow down and just take it all in as my mind and heart was trying to process all the sites and sounds at once. They are best processed individually and slowly. Then you can become part of the World you are in and I had slipped from the World I love back to a World with concrete and steal, hustle and bustle. A World so far from the one I love and the one I missed.

Each step I could feel my mind and heart slowly and the World around me coming back into focus. I could hear the birds before I could see them and the feel of the ground became known again. My steps would become more silent with each passing moment. My heart and mind slowed to the beat of the woods around.

As I headed down the trail I could sense life around me again and I knew I was not alone. A Red Tailed Hawk flew just feet from me across the path to another perch and we did this for awhile. It stayed just ahead of me leading the way. When I decided to stop he flew onward. I stood and listened to the chipmunks calling and the leaves rustling from a snake I soon found. A frog let out a peep and dove for the water after seeming to notice my presence kneeling just feet away. I was connected again. I was alive. Mother Nature's heart beat was one with mine again.

I walked to the top of a knoll that overlooks a pond and below were three Wood Ducks. A flash from a nearby tree turned into my friend the hawk, making a dive towards the now shrieking and scattering ducks. The hawk swooped back up to a new perch 50 yards away and I laughed as I knew he was truly blaming me for the failed attempt but yet my presence was not threatening to it.

The sun was beginning to go down and the clouds were thickening. I turned and enjoy the slow stroll back from where I had came and determined not to slip back into the World of mans creation. As I started back up the hill I knew I was not alone and I could feel eyes upon. Not in a way that was creepy but simply that I was being watched. Watched as I would watch another part of Nature. I kept moving till I found a nice place to stop where I could see more.

I stood still and silent. I slowed my breathing and could feel my body going into a deep calm. I watched the woods before me and the sounds were like pieces of a puzzle falling into place as I understood what was watching me and where. Deer were just inside the woods and parallel to where I had been walking. Slowly the sounds continued to come closer to the edge and I could make out the deer. One, two, three, four, and more....

One appeared out of the woods and into the clearing not far from me. Our eyes met and I felt welcomed. A second started to emerge and then a loud crack behind me. A tree snapped. Things fall in the woods and the moment was broken. Fear shot through me as it did the deer who now thundered off through the woods. Hooves pounding, branches cracking and snapping.....thundering through the forest unseen.

As my heart slowed and calm return the deer sounds faded. Silence was broken by a crow cawing as it flew overhead. Blue Jays soon sang too and I decided it was time to continue heading out.

The sun was directly in my eyes and I lowered the bill of my hat to block the sun. Slowly walking enjoying the last moments of a beautiful setting sun. Then I feel the urge to stop and so I listen to that urge as I always do. Before back lit by the sun is a doe. She walks silently from one side of the clearing to the other. Stopping once and looking in my direction, bending to take a bite of the grass and then continuing before disappearing back into the woods on the other side of the trail.

A silent moment we shared and one for me to savor. A sign I think that meant it was understood it was not I who produced the fear but I like the deer shared the fear of a moment in the woods. Mother Nature and I connected today. Gone were the steal and concrete, the hustle and bustle to be replaced by the heart beat of life, the heart beat of Nature, and my heart beat again. Peace...Nature nurtures.