Please meet my fellow forest therapy guide Carolyn Peduzzi. We belong to the Squirrel Tribe, a group of 20-30 guides, all of them situated in North-America, who started their practicum to become a certified forest therapy guide in Colorado’s Grand Lake. Carolyn and I had regular calls as well exchanged letters in the past 6 months. I love listening to her stories and see her as my elder, from who I like to learn. Hence, some weeks ago, I asked her to be a guest blogger. She told me it is enticing thought. However, she is turning 70 in September, so she decided to buy a small camper and take a sabbatical for the entire year. She does not want to commit to any new project, which I can understand. With her permission, I like to share a poem Carolyn wrote at the end of our 6,5 month long practicum.
Forest Bathing
Be still my beating heart.
Be still my coursing mind.
Sit here and
Listen
Smell
Watch
Dissolve.
Pine needles rustle
Clouds float
Lilacs simmer
Fragrance wafts.
Nothing has moved, but
Everything is moving.
Toads chirrup
Frogs still chortle
Salamanders float
Like mermaids.
Bees buzz, birds call,
A hermit thrush flutes.
Temperatures warm,
Temperatures cool,
It grows cold.
The pond evaporates
Molecules rise
Mist sifts down
Turns to rain
Turns to snow
Turns to ice.
The river flows
Black as a crow
Turns grey
Finally white as snow.
I sit
Listening
Smelling
Watching
Dissolving.
Euphoria claims me
Exhilaration steals me.
I am no longer me.
I am a soaring crow
I am a silly chipmunk
I am a beaver splash.
I am a warm breeze
Flowing down the meadow
I am a sharp cold
Biting my nose.
I am a giant white pine
I’m a small johnny-jump-up
I am bowed under snow
I am balsam and spruce.
I am sunrise and sunset
I am day and night
I am winter and summer
I am here and now.
I sit in the middle of so much
Beauty,
Holding hands with all of
Life.
It is only the lady bug
Who lands on my hand,
(bright red carapace
Peppered black spots)
The tiny prick of its legs
Pricking me back
To time
To my day
Encouraging me to rise
From my Sit-Spot
To embrace my beating heart
And smile at my coursing mind.
—–
Isn’t it beautiful? If you are looking for a forest therapy guide in Vermont or northern Wisconsin, where she has her ‘basecamps’, write me an email and I will bring you in contact. I hope one day I will go forest bathing and be her guest in Vermont.
Stories from the Wood Wide Web 