I DECIDED to go out for a country walk
I DECIDED to go out for a country walk, for as John Muir said, “Going out is really going in.” It would be the sort of walk much favored by me, with no identifiable goal or ambition. Just to see things and think about them, or not think about them as the case may be. Immediately after stepping out the cabin door, there began the wild chirping of eagles, ‘our’ local pair, who nest only 100 yards from the cabin. I cast my eyes toward their tree and there they were, flapping their wings with much gusto, perhaps disturbed by the squeaking of the door hinge. Or just announcing my presence. Or theirs. Or.. who knows. But I was very glad to see and hear them in mid-winter, and heard myself saying, ‘Hello, brother and sister. I am connected to you. We share the same trees, the same woods, the same river. The same air. The same life. Thank you.’
And there a pattern began. I soon came upon the tracks of an opossum, winding around the cabin. ‘Hello, little brother,’ I said. ‘I am connected to you.’ Next I found the sign of the gray squirrel, and the red. ‘Hello, little ones, I am connected to you!’ A blue Jay screamed from the balsam firs. ‘Hello there, Jay bird, I am connected to you!’ A pileated woodpecker laughed from the deep woods. ‘I am connected to you!’ And I laughed back. Heading down to the river, I found sign of the white tailed deer, a cottontail, the tracks and scat of the red fox. The tree hole of the chickadee, where he hides from the winter winds. Several of them called their names, ‘Chick-a-Dee-Dee-Dee’ from a silver maple above. ‘Hello, little brothers and sisters, I am connected to you! Thank you!’ As if thinking or saying it for the first time. Which was not true, and yet…
By the time I returned from my little, ‘pointless’ walk with no purpose, I felt somehow lighter, cleaner, better. Better than I had in many days. Re-connected to a world more ancient and wise and real than the one we seem to reside in every day. And un-connected—disconnected—from a shallow and noisy world tainted by corruption, cruelty, and disgrace.
There is no ignorance or disgrace among our little brothers and sisters of the Earth, of the forest, of the river. There never has been, never will be. That is why to walk among them, even to talk with them, for a little while, can lift your spirit. Can even cleanse your soul. Mitakuye oyasin, say the Lakota. We are all relatives. We are all connected.