by Alicia Yamashita

Created on: April 09, 2010

There is something magical about nature that brings me back to that child-like state that I sometimes lose when all I can think about are my bills and appointments. When I surround myself in the natural world, everything else seems to melt away.

Standing in the middle of a forest, I forget the existence of cars and tall buildings. It is quiet here, but yet there are noises all around. The ground under my feet is not hard pavement, but soft earth covered in fallen leaves and wild things growing where ever they wish.

There are no people around, but there are animals. They are everywhere but I can rarely see them. I can hear them though. Squirrels scamper up trees and mice scurry into their small burrows. High above me there are birds in the branches of the wise, old trees.

I find the trees the most fascinating of all. They have seen so many more years than anyone or anything else I know. I wonder if they can see the passing of days and nights. Would they go by quickly for them, or do they feel time in the same way that I do? Do trees remember everything? Do they recall every animal that has called them home? Are they aware of them at all?

The feeling the forest gives me is something I am surprised is not physically addictive. I feel like a child. I feel like anything could happen here. Here, everything lives and dies in harmony. Plants drop seeds that in turn grow into beautiful new plants all by themselves. Plants and animals sometimes die, but then they nourish the earth and the earth gives birth to more life. Everything works with everything else in a mystical system of life and death where nothing is wasted.

The air is energizing; surely it must have something special, something life-giving in it.

I close my eyes and breathe in the supernatural air. It is crisp and thrilling in my lungs. A breeze circles all around me, dancing with my hair and my clothes which softly lick at my skin. It is so perfect here that I cannot comprehend being anywhere else. Is there anything else? There mustn’t be, for who could want anything else?

But deep within my heart I know that I will return to my home in the suburbs. I know I will return to my work, earning money and buying things I do not need for my survival.

Too often do we read books and watch movies that take place in far away, mystical places. Perhaps they are places that aren’t even real. We think of these places and wish that we could live there, for they are so full of magic and wonder.

But if we could remember to look outside our windows at the spectacular world we already live in we would see that there is no need to long for a land full of magic. We already have one.

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