Practice 2

Breathing in big, tall trees.

I breath in the smell of the wet ground, the trees, leaves fallen from the trees, and I grow taller.

I breath out the city, people, work, and I grow deeper.

I breath in and my heart expands.

I breath out and the weight around it disappears.

The rain runs down my nose. It covers my glasses in raindrops.

I can't see with them, and without them the forest is an impressionist painting.

Without my glasses my hike becomes a practice of feeling rather than one of seeing.

Feeling first, sight second.

So we walk - me feeling, Sappho smelling. And, I can know where she is when I feel instead of look. We are working together.

And, then there is the sense of fall in the forest - it is peaceful and calm.

Death in the forest has a softness to it and a sense of hope and promise.

The trunks of trees meet the ground like elephant feet.

So we walk.