Ervey Woods and Ness Woods
Julie, her friend, Elizabeth, and I went for a three-hour hike today in the two forests named above. The woods were gorgeous and much of the trail was either along the Burntollet River or at the top of a gorge looking far down onto the river and its many waterfalls. The river is full of massive boulders, which makes for a noisy and dramatic flow of bracken-brown water. There’s a gallery on this page but it doesn’t do the park justice. I forgot my camera but Julie took one photo on her phone near a picturesque ruin.
Julie’s spiritual views are hard to describe or categorise. During the hike, she hugged trees, stood barefoot in the river as part of a water communion, and rubbed moss on her face while sporting a shit-eating grin. I’m not on the same spiritual plane as Julie but I have no problem being open to her ideas. Lately these have included becoming grounded by standing barefoot on the earth and connecting to the natural world’s energy through trees or water. I’d say I can handle her nontraditional views for four reasons:
- I’m aware of my own limitations as someone who struggles with abstractions. I’m linear and literal and I see how this limits my ability to experience the world versus, say, an artist or someone with strong spiritual beliefs (Christian, Muslim, Hindu...).
- I have no end of respect for Julie. She has a pure heart and an old soul and she does so much to help people struggling with mental health, particularly young people. I’m in favour of whatever it takes to recharge her batteries.
- I think I have a general suspicion of western approaches to medicine, religion, economics. I am open to mystery -- to approaches to healing and health and spirituality that come from inherited wisdom, not from an encyclopaedia or religious text (written by men, for men).
- I have always been happiest in a forest or on a mountain or hiking anywhere removed from places that “proclaim so loudly man’s endeavour.”
This is a long way of saying today was a good day. Interesting conversation with wise women and endless eye candy--fluorescent green moss on downed trees, shamrocks growing on a tree stump, tall trees with fern-fuzzed sides, the roaring water.
12-24