Southeast Oklahoma, Ouachita National Forest, Cedar Lake Campground, Site 9.

Though I love visiting family and friends, cities and neighborhoods, I’ve missed the solitude, silence and darkness of the forest. It’s cloudy and cool, and the tree branches are bare, but …..

Silence, oh how I love you. How could I forget how calming, uplifting, and peaceful you are? The forest, the plants, the ground, the fallen leaves, the almost dried- up river.

A short walk across the wooden bridge, the hollow thunk of my rubber tipped cane, the soft shuffle of my feet across the boards.

 

On the trail, a dry oak leaf crunches under my heel; a twig snaps;

 

 

tall weeds sway silently in the lightest breath of a breeze;a bird trills one note; my breaths deepen.

 

 

 

 

I gaze at the strange blue of the water andthe distorted reflections of the trees and the bridge.

 

 

Oh silence, how I love you.

No manmade lights shine into the Sprinter tonight. It will be pitch dark. We are the only ones in the campground.

No cell phone coverage, no wifi…..no politics to track tonight feeding my recent addiction.

I stand in the light of my headlamp at the campsite’s electric plug

 

watching the blue light on the teakettle.

 

I had forgotten my beloved meditation, balancing pose, breathing exercises and other necessary dailies in the distractions of light and sound. I move into a balancing pose,then began Qi Gong as tiny bubbles get bigger and bigger until I lift the pot from its base and take it into the Sprinter closing the big, sliding door for the night.

Oh silence in the comforting forest, how I love you.