How to slow down enough to almost stop.

There’s something we all want, we all need, and I guess like everyone else I just want to slow down sometimes and know that it’s OK.

Being an adult in this world is hard enough, it feels like there is so much to do, the “to do list” gets so long and we feel like we just don’t measure up on any particular day because maybe we didn’t get to anything on our list today, or only one or two.

We also want to feel at home, protected, comfortable, we love the familiar because it lets us let go, drop all the external facades we have and just be ourselves. The things we want to do, the people we want to love, we want to know we got this and we aren’t letting the small stuff from being there to do the good stuff.

Sometimes we don’t even know what that feeling of being at home is until it happens, and it might not take much. We walk into a door, get off a plane, arrive somewhere and everything opens up and we just feel good. Like the only things that matter are the important things like family, our life and taking ‘it’ in.

Like there’s been a million things to do, think about, protect ourselves form, navigate, work around, plan and decide on, then there’s a realization. There’s nothing more to do at all, nothing to plan, nothing to do. All the things that seemed to urgent? Not so important any more, at least for now. Kind of unnerving too as in ‘why was I focusing on all these unimportant things’ or the like. And that’s how much we lose track of ‘it’.

This being good to ourselves.

Wait.

That’s not just it. It’s a big part but there’s something else. We also want mystery, something that says ‘“oh yes!” this is what I’ve needed all along where was it all this time.

OK maybe that’s a bit to the extreme but you get it.

So, about the Forest. When guests come to the Forest they feel at home when they walk in the door.

“Paradise”. “Oasis”. “Magical”. They have felt the love that has gone into the place. You get the picture.

And you can let go of all the unimportant things. Be kids again. Big kids, but kids, inside. You want to treat yourself to a good life.

To say something more about ‘the Forest’ as I call it, it’s a place that has touched me in so many deep ways that I realized so strongly that there actually are really important things in life that I wasn’t prioritizing. And I think I resisted and tried to justify all the unimportant things I needed to do and add to my lists and get done before some other thing that was on my list, but the Forest persisted and eventually I gave in. I let it just take me over and let me settle and take deep breaths and not to be kind of cliche but I let it take me in like you are breathing together with the Forest, in one rhythm. From all the research done on Forests, forest bathing and all that it’s not that far off.

When you come to the Forest I want everything as perfect as it can be with all the amenities I want to be there for you, but I also want you to have some adventure and even contribute how you can, participate as if it is your home (just without the headaches). You can chop some firewood, you can deal with blizzards when you are out in what at least feel like the middle of nowhere, you can walk out in the dark and be reminded of how dark it is in the Forest when there’s no street lights and nothing citified, Most of all you can experience it as you feel it, no one can choreograph it for you (even though we give you detailed lists of what’s available to you from trails to anything else you might want to do).

It’s not that easy though when you start to feel at home and realize there is nothing to do. And here’s a bit of a sidetrack. We’re not totally sure about it, it feels too nice, so we pull back a bit, because life is so hard a lot of the time and a lot of the time. We maybe don’t even know it sometimes, because we tell ourselves we need to work for it or earn these good feelings.

A bit of an ebb and flow, organic like, circular not linear. When I go to the Forest I want to sit down. Look around. Look out the window. Read a book. Light a candle. Light a fire…. Make a tea - maybe even nap. Go back outside and play in the Forest. But definitely nothing more than that.

Then it happens…. It…. you start to reflect, think about your life.

And you smile, you feel good, you feel your essence - and that’s when life seems to stop. Or a new one starts.

Lose your mind and find your soul.

So to speak.

And maybe you come back again…. and again….

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