What Gives You Peace?

Peace for me is found in a simple few things.

A walk in the woods with the dog.
I don't do it to 'clear my head', I do it because.
Yep.
Because.

Mind you, this is not a hiking trail that is groomed. This is a wild forest, overgrown with briers, thorn patches, and strewn with downed trees and rocks.

A wild place.
A place where you can spot a coyote or a fawn in the daylight.

It isn't dangerous. It just takes away the whole outside world as you make your way down an old cow path turned into a sometimes 'mule path' that is also shared by me and Morris.



My feet get soaked from wandering down the stream and surveying what the latest gully washer did for redecoration.
I'm not unhappy about the wet feet, it feels nice on this hot day.

The bugs swarm around my face but don't bother me as I applied the homemade 'stinky' stuff to ward them off.

Truthfully, I think they call their friends and say...
*Whoa, come and take a whiff of this human...yick!"


I'm not one to stop and set for a while and contemplate either.
I like to move.
Although there is a spot that I happen to enjoy.


The creek runs hard over some rocks under a basswood tree. I'll sometimes sit and listen to the breezes in the trees up on the hill and get mesmerized by the water.

[There used to be a bank here that I could lay on and watch the trout flit about...one has to lay absolutely still...unfortunately the latest flood waters washed the bank away.]


I don't stay long though, there is always so much to see...
and of course try to figure out the easiest way to eventually get back home without using a pocket saw to fight my way through the multiflora rose bushes and berry briers.

Oh and there is always a delight for me to find. Sometimes it is an odd weed and sometimes the color just suits me.
This is what gives me peace and sense of self.
Wandering, not thinking of the world outside.
Breathing in the scents of the woodland.
Watching, listening, taking it all in...
...heck after that?

Who has time for anything else?