quiet woods

I am walking in some woods, beautiful woods, mostly with small oak trees, holm oak I think, and there are a few pine trees mixed in. It's the afternoon, and the air is still. And the thing I notice most in these woods is the quiet. Mostly we live such noisy lives. And it's such a relief, to the body, to the whole being, to find some quiet.

And walking in these quiet woods, for a few hours as I have been, I notice that I too become quiet. The mind settles. Thoughts dissipate easily. And it feels as if the body itself becomes quiet. There is a tremendous resonance with the quiet of the woods, a resonance deep on the inside. And I feel so grateful, so lucky, to feel this quiet. The silence comes with a stillness. And sitting in this quiet, this quiet still wood, it is as if I become empty: empty of my own story, empty of all that chatter, all the nonsense. And this emptiness has a great spaciousness to it.

And this is the great gift that this wood is giving me today. Through resonating with it, with its quietness, I am returned to that place within me which is quiet and still and empty. Do not think of this empty word as negative. It is a blissful space. And I give thanks to these woods and their quiet.