When I was a young girl I would go walking in the woods near my house. I would tuck a book inside my jacket and walk along the trail, follow the old fence, and make my way through the under brush until I came to my tree. My tree. The one I climbed and pulled myself up until I came to that wide branch that curved up to the tree trunk creating a perfect seat for me. And there I would nestle myself into that wooden nook, out of view amongst the green leaves and and the shroud of trees surrounding my sacred space in the forest. For a while I would sit in the quiet to read and to think and to be with just myself. Lost to time and the demands of others.
It's been a lot of years since I sat in that tree or any other. I make it my practice though to sit quietly each day so that I may reconnect to the silence within, to the peace that is the soul. It is the act of withdrawing from the world to a softer inner place that allows us to return to the world reawakened and renewed. I carry the memory of my tree with me, returning to it in my mind whenever I long for a moment of bliss. I feel the curve of the tree at my back, hear the rustle of the leaves, and I slip back in time to my early joy of solitude. I close my eyes to go there. And when I return I open my eyes to see the world is always more beautiful after we have stepped away from the noise, be it ever so briefly.
Take time for yourself.
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