Aurora 2021 Mag

Tavia Hedrick

The Forest’s Song

I stopped in the middle of the path and said nothing. He felt my presence slip away and looked back at me in confusion, but I just stood there, centered between the vast lengths of trees. I gestured for him to stand beside me. Existing together. Slowing my breath to match the tempo of the Earth, I began to clear my mind, releasing all racing thoughts into the void of branches, and asked him to follow. I slammed a hallway of doors within my mind, one for each element that made me human, and threw away the master key. Speaking out loud now above the symphony of the woods, I guided us to close our eyes, and let go of everything that made us feel superior to our surroundings. Whatever defined us as human no longer held meaning… Standing in the comfort of nature’s silence, we began to remove ourselves from the moment, cell by cell. Starting with our feet we, like sand, drifted away into the Earth. We then steadily inched up our bodies to our legs and arms, and eventually all the way to our minds, completely forgetting all about our most human identities. Then, standing completely still, we surrendered and molded ourselves like clay into the existing life forms breathing within the woods around us. I took several deep breaths and opened my eyes to find myself looking through the lenses of a white oak tree, whose branches stretched out all the way toward the sun. I felt the warm summer breeze tickle my leaves and the energy of the forest pulse through my roots. Time slowed down and we were simply existing now. All parts of the forest were connected, like a perfectly woven basket, each organism with their own unique niche. Even the distant highway noises had begun to sound like a melody within the forest’s song.

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