Virtual Forest Bath: 20-Minute Nature Immersion

Hi,

I'm Sarah Blondin and I will be reading to you a short story I wrote of a moment spent in nature at dusk.

Please find comfort in a soft spot,

Bring your eyes to a close,

And just listen.

Come now,

Dear one,

To rest your tired bones and body.

You have done so well today walking in the world.

You have tried as best you can to put one foot in front of the other,

To follow whatever your heart asks you to.

You have done so well today living your life.

The night is here now and it is time to put down your busy worlds and enter the quiet relief of the empty ink black sky.

The squirrel and sparrow are tucked away in cedar branches,

In small holes of ancient oak trees.

You too are in your own comfortable place,

Laying down,

Putting away,

Becoming quiet,

Becoming still,

Bringing your sweet body to rest in the arms of the night.

Retire,

My dear one,

It is time now to rest.

Feeling the weight of your heavy eyelids,

Feeling your being beginning to decompress,

Letting your tense and worried nerves unfurl and lay flat,

Taking a deep and slow breath,

Watching as your exhale unlocks the corners of your body.

For a moment,

Let your breath lead you to peace,

The peace of your own being.

Let it lead you to the quiet and loving engine of your own body.

You are standing at the edge of the woods at twilight.

The robins and swallows are busy shaking the last seeds loose,

Pulling the last worm from the earth,

Doing their last duty before the door of night comes to close their wings.

You too are standing in hip-high grass and wild flower,

Doing your last duty of witnessing in wonder and worship the world awake before you.

You have lost the notion of rushing.

Nature has slowed your blood and cracked open a small window in your heart.

There are no walls separating you from the open field and shifting sky.

You are rooted as the fir tree,

Malleable as the pepper grass.

You take two small steps,

Feeling the soles of your feet as they lift off and land back on the soft soil.

Your bare feet soak in sand and mineral.

You kneel down to look at your footprint,

Now beside the deer and the coyote.

Putting your open palm down on the moist earth,

You can feel her breathing.

For a moment,

It is as if your very pulse is matching the beat of the earth.

A distant drumming rises from the nearby poplar stand.

You can't tell if you are dreaming the sound or if it's real.

The snapping of a twig shifts your attention away from the rhythmic pulse.

You scan the living treescape and see,

Peering out through the deep red branches of a shrub of willow,

The sweet eyes of a fawn.

It looks with its round and clear eyes into yours.

Both of you stand frozen.

You fear breathing for fear of frightening the sacred life before you.

A small bird cry arches above you,

Streaking sound and wing across peach and plum sky.

You watch for a moment,

Eyes wide open,

As the wisps of cloud change from deep purple to rich raspberry.

Not one moment do they stay the same.

The sky,

The clouds,

The earth is ever changing,

And you too are moving along with it.

A soft wind from the south sends a small seed flying.

It brushes against your right cheek.

You feel as though you have just been kissed by the great mystery,

The great swirling winds.

You close your eyes and lift your face to the sun.

To take in the sweetness of this moment,

Your breath and body are like a clear stream.

The last warm rays of sun reach out over your closed eyelids.

You see the light moving over them,

Like gold painting the inside of your very eyes.

A small smile curls on its own in the corners of your mouth.

You are alive.

You are here now in this moment,

There as a mountain stream.

Knees pressed against the cool earth and mud.

Warm sweet air,

Seed and song washing over skin and through hair.

A tickle spreads across your leg.

You open your eyes and see the bright yellow of a buttercups upturned face.

You bring the soft petal to your lips gently.

You breathe in deeply.

The sweet sigh of thanks leaves your parted lips.

After waking from what felt like years of sleep,

You felt nature was loving you awake.

You felt the earth breathing its grace up the roots of your feet.

The trees gathering together to give you grounded strength.

You felt the wind was carrying loving whispers from the divine to your slumbering ears.

You felt the sky showering you with wisdom.

You saw before you a playground of light,

Each beam reaching towards you.

You understood for the first time it seemed.

The life resting in the spaces between your bones was meant to be lived with every fibre.

Was meant to be fiercely loved and honoured and savoured.

After waking from what felt like years of sleep,

You decided you would live forever more wide open to all that came to be in front of you.

You decided that living awake in this way was a choice.

And in this moment,

Standing in hip high grass and darkening night,

You became free.

And in this moment,

You chose from this day forward to be the beam of light that reaches toward all other life.

To be the beam that assists the earth in breathing and loving others awake.

And in this moment,

You and the flowers are dressed in nothing but light.

And everything around you is singing your name.

You are allowed to be at peace,

Dear one.

You are allowed to be at peace.

You are allowed to be at peace.

You are allowed to be at peace.

You are allowed to be at peace.

You are allowed to be at peace.

You are allowed to be at peace.

You are allowed to be at peace.