Truly Getting Away

I miss silence.  Don’t get me wrong I enjoy music and television and the internet but sometimes I want to turn all that stuff off and enjoy the silence.

There are lots of great places to hike within an hour drive from my house.  I’ve been to many of them but I can still hear car traffic sometimes or worse yet I can see the cars through the trees or at the top of a hill.  I go hiking to get away from all that.

Give me the wind whistling through the trees.  The sound of my boots on the trail.  Birds chirping toward the morning sun.  I love listening to unseen animals rummage through the underbrush for food.  Then running for safety as I approach.

The silence is calming.  I realize though it can also be unsettling.  So many people are so used to the noise that surrounds us everyday.  To turn all that off is weird.  At first.  Stay with it and you can learn to enjoy the silence as well as the noise.

It is important to have time away from the constant noise and bustle of life.  To spend time with nothing but your own thoughts.  That’s why I like to go hiking.

I believe the word is balance, or maybe its contentment.  I’m working toward both.  How about you?

Pack out what you pack in.

The Pond

The Pond

Deep in the woods,

where still trees
drip green moss
and mushrooms litter
the spongy earth
like fairy tents,
lies a round pond.

A long age ago

some glacier dug
and scooped this place
for a perfect pond
where wary creatures
pause to drink
and light-footed birds
walk on lily-pad
stepping stones.

What if the glacier

had not dug here?

Where would
the animals drink?

Used with permission.  From Wild Country by David L. Harrison © 1999 Wordsong Boyds Mill Press, Inc., A Highlights Company, 815 Church Street, Honesdale, PA 18431, www.davidlharrison.com

 

Dead Trees

Dead trees are just as wonderful as life ones.  Just as many animals live inside a dead tree as a live one. Its human nature to be drawn to the live tree with its branches full of leaves reaching to the sky.  Yes that is beautiful.

The dead tree has more character.  Remember I love using my imagination.  Picture what did live in the tree and what might still be making the tree its home.  Birds, squirrels, mice, bugs, and fungi all make their homes in trees.  The hard woods soften when they die.  That makes it easier for animals and bugs to burrow into.  It’s easier to make a dead tree a home.

I also find the decomposition process fascinating.  No, I’m not a coroner by trade.  We live in a disposable society.  We put stuff in the trash and don’t give another thought to it.  But there is a system in place to return every living thing back to the earth to be used by future generations.  Yes, like fossil fuels.  But also basics like fertilizer for more plants.  It really is a circle of life.

So what’s the point?  I’m not sure.  I guess to ask you to think before you just put stuff in the trash can.  Have you really used the product to its full extent?  Can you use the product in another way?  Can part or all of it be recycled?

I have two points.  Don’t bulldoze a tree just because it’s dead and no longer fits your decor.  As I said dead trees have more character.  Unless it’ll damage a nearby house let the dead tree stay.

Pack out what you pack in.

 

Sources:

            Trees are Terrific! National Wildlife Federation, Chelsea House Publishers, © 1999.

Forest Preservation

“God has cared for these trees saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods.  But he cannot save them from fools.”  John Muir’s words are just as true now as when he spoke them.  Trees are important.  I hope this blog’s been making that clear.  We need to care about all trees not just the ones in the South American rain forest.

Deforestation means any removal of trees without replanting them.  What is your house sitting on?  Was a forest destroyed so your house could be built?  Was it farm land?  Look around you.  The green is disappearing.

A perfectly manicured law is not enough.  Trees are important.  They cool the land.  They take our exhaled carbon dioxide and make it into the oxygen we inhale.  They are homes for squirrels, birds, chipmunks, and bugs.

So it’s important to plant a tree where ever and whenever you can.  Look around your lot there has to be a place where you can plant a tree.  Landscape designers can help you decide which tree you have space for.  Make sure to call the utility location service in your area before you start to dig.  Trust me it will be worth the hassle.

Pack out what you pack in.