time well wasted

The past couple of weekends I've stolen time for myself. Time I don't normally carve from the endless cycle of running and doing that constantly demands attention. It's just how it is, kids need to be here or there, dishes need doing, laundry needs washing, house needs cleaning. The next minute I look up from the task in front of me and suddenly it's closing in on the next day and another round of schedule humping.

With the arrival of slightly warmer weather last weekend, I gathered the dog and a daypack and headed off to explore an area of my town that I knew about but have never bothered to visit in the almost eighteen years of living within a ten minute drive.

A forestry resource center, with trails, trees and quiet. I used to spend many many hours exploring up in the South Mountain and Watchung reservations in good weather, and bad, because the woods have always been a place that offers me solitude, peace, and the openess to think, or not, should that be the inclination of the moment. But over time, despite having several acceptable parks close at hand, I stopped finding the time for leisurely walks in the woods unless it was on vacation.

I missed it.

Somehow I had forgotten how much my time in the woods nurtured my spirit until I was deep into my walk, sipping some water, the dog at my side and felt myself breathe, just breathe, and absorb the silence of a pine forest trail. It was wonderful.

                             

So I went back Sunday, and my daughter went with me. And the dog, of course, because she has some bizarre radar that zeroes in on a person who might even be thinking of going for a walk and leaving the house for such a venture without the canine companion is just not tolerable to her mind.

This weekend the weather was even more gentle so I headed back to explore further and found hints of spring in wild rhododendren shoots pushing through the fallen leaves.

In tender leaf buds on swaying branches.

And in the murmuring of the river, flush from the recent rains.

A nice long stroll in the woods reminds me to breathe, to take the time to notice the details in the world around me. During these walks, where pine needles carpet the path, I can put aside the day to day frets and focus on bigger things.

Like which path will lead me to the next discovery.