I’ve spent the last 30 minutes sitting roughly 25 feet up in my tree-stand listening, watching and mediating. Not listening for a deer but to the wild sounds of the squirrels picking up the fallen tree nuts, the winds wrestling the leafs as it gently rolls down the cleared cut that I sit adjacent to. I’m not watching for the slow thought-out movement of a targeted mature buck but how the branches and trees sway in the breeze. Now my meditating thoughts wander a bit, maybe it’s because there is so much going on and this is the first opportunity I’ve given myself to really be still and process what I need, listening to my inner voice.

Even as I type this out my head and heart think about if I should be in this tree or if I should be elsewhere. The outdoors is where I feel most in touch with something bigger than myself. Maybe it’s God, maybe it’s knowing that outside my bubble there is a beautiful world that moves forward without the help or harm from humans trying to improve it. I probably do most of my praying and soul seeking when I’m outside, and I don’t typically talk about my relationship with God. But there is a stillness in the woods that lends itself to opening my heart and having an honest conversation.

I often look for signs in situations, when I’m in reflection and I wonder if there is an essence out there listening, planning, putting things in motion for us to react to. I always smile when I’m in the woods and see a cardinal, my mother loved cardinals and sometimes I think she’s saying hi from the other side and that no matter what’s going on she’s still with us. It gives me the same feeling when I’m talking to someone and they say something that catches me off guard, not because it’s rude or spiteful, but because I have thought the  same thing and they might not know it at the time but it changes the dynamic.

These are just some of the thoughts that cross my mind while I sit quietly in the woods. This evening I am glad my phone doesn’t have cell service and I could be still and listen.