Freedom to sit

Rattlesnake Fern

Even though I live in the forest, surrounded by its beauty, many times I feel I don’t have much time to spend there. My life is as busy as everyone’s is, with work and chores and errands. There’s always something that needs done, something that shouldn’t be put off another day, something. Time to ignore those demands and the constraints of daily life doesn’t come often. My time to just sit and enjoy the woods feels almost nonexistent. Occasionally, I just ignore the never-ending demands and go anyways, but I don’t do that as often as I should.

Adventure camp this year is letting me sit in the woods all day long, one day a week for eight weeks. And they are paying me to do it. How utterly incredible is that?

Of course, I have 8 groups of kids coming to my sitting spot during that day, and ideally I spend about 20 minutes with each group. But that still leaves me long stretches of time to just sit and enjoy the woods, to listen to the birds, watch the sky or see if I can still catch a crayfish or a frog. Yesterday was heaven. Even the weather cooperated, a joy I don’t expect to be repeated every week or maybe not even again. I will deal with that as it comes.

For now, I am content to be away from the work, chores and errands, to enjoy the freedom to putter around all day in the woods with no task in mind, or to sit in my camp chair and listen to the birds, watch the day’s sun shadows traverse the woods and just sit.