I wasn't Allowed in the Woods

Almost immediately, someone steps from the shadow behind a tree. I clench my teeth and raise my eyes towards them.

The sun was glistening through the tall, swaying pines. To the right of the trail, a gentle river flowed softly down towards the mouth of the lake. Walking across the rickety wooden bridge, I inhaled a deep breath of refreshingly crisp mountain air. The sun beat down on me as I made my way across the bridge and back onto the well-used hiking trail. The ambient sounds of chirping birds, babbling water, and the croaks of several frogs filled my ears as I made my way around the bend. As I entered the mouth of the forest, I could see my father standing in the middle of the path, glancing upwards, taking in the beauty that had began to engulf us. “We better get going.” he said, looking back at me. “There’s still many miles to go.” I smiled and turned, taking in one last view of the beautiful creekside. Then, with determination, we set out to finish the challenging trek we had started.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential

“So much is there, so much to see, you just cannot. You are not one; you are not gifted like me. I can be free. The void will save me, I shall live free.” With that I took the extra step off the edge. Then I was falling through the thick fog down the steep cliff -

Grass tickles my bare feet, and the sultry night air caresses my skin as I stand facing the forest. With the moon full and glistening over the dew covered greenery, I am enraptured. The gentle breeze wraps around me like a lovers embrace and I am lost to my surroundings. The nights are beginning to cool with the new season and are a welcomed relief to the waning summer heat.

Trying to make as little noise as possible I walk to where I will sit. Along the way, I creep over a knoll and jump four deer browsing on small alders. Immediately upon seeing me, they streak through the trees; I stop and listen to their feet pounding into the earth, and realize there are many deer in the area and my chances of seeing a deer while sitting will be very good. After 15 minutes of sneaking through the oaks and maple trees I find the tree I will sit in. My father set the the stand in the tree a few weeks before my arrival. I crawl up and as I sit down it is just getting light in the east.

I sit out under an old Oak tree in my garden, taking in the last of it 's beauty as Autumn gladly welcomes itself in. A slight breeze streams past, knocking amber leaves from their branches and sending them to swim throughout the crisp air.

This year, I have found that missing piece again, bundling up holly and ivy, learning to care for a little gecko named Speck, and going pond sampling for invertebrates and water quality as my biology teacher’s assistant. I have found it in the grass cemented to my back after my first time laying shirtless in the sun. I have found it in learning and rambling about the interconnected nature of effects of the Enlightenment, increases in cultural scale, globalization, and the Westernization of Guatemala in the mid 1800’s. Just last week, I found it in the Froot Loops from my first trip to the

Moving along the beach, I noticed a variety of vibrant rocks clustered together like bright patches of nebula against the darkened pitch of sand. Here was a crater of red, there, multiple rings of green set into a granite base, and even farther away there were whole galaxies of stone dusted in slices of quartz and coarse iron. Soon the rising and falling rush of water in my ears was accompanied by the gentle clacking sound of small, mineral galaxies colliding against one another in the confines of my palms. It was as we were preparing to leave that a final rock flashed across my peripheral. As if by some unseen cosmic force, I found myself reeling with the efforts to unearth it. Unlike the others already in my possession, this rock had a dull and rough exterior. Maybe, I was now realizing, it was much the same as the Sault Saint Marie I had always been so quick to scorn.

I came to and looked around at the eerily familiar landscape, but something was missing. The house. It was gone. I slowly walked towards the plantation that I had visited so many times before, and as I grew closer and closer, I saw something peculiar. What was a rock doing in the middle of an empty field? The field was empty except for a single tree, which

song I am hearing really is. As I take a step into the forest, I

“It was just the trees, Max.” I mutter to myself. About five minutes later I hear it again, I stop dead in my tracks. “Who’s there!?” I shout.

becomes too heavy to not look at, the viewer’s gazes drops to the rock and creates unseen triangles.

The sunless sky covered the woods over the treetops which created a canopy over my head. The crimson and auburn foliage was a magnificent sight, as this was the season known as Fall. There was a gentle breeze, creating the single sound of rustling leaves. The leaves appeared as though they were dying to fall out of the tree and join their companions on the forest floor. Together with pine needles and other flora the leaves formed a thick springy carpet for me to walk upon.

A ways away from a town that I call home, I found a happy place. I often find myself walking through the park by myself. The beautiful trees, the way the yellow and red leaves crumple under my feet every step I take. When the flowers bloom and how it's the most spectacular sight you could ever imagine seeing, all the different colors that appear. When you breathe in and you get this smell of purity, you feel free and alive. Sometimes I like to sit on the old wooden bench where the bench frame is a little rusted, and I get rid of my thoughts and my eyes search the sky. In the winter the icy breeze makes me shiver, and the cold air I take in, is like sitting in front of an air conditioner and breathing in. Some mornings the sun beams across the sky, which is not quite blue yet, but the sun has almost fully risen. When the wind blows, it grazes over the blades of grass. Some days I just stand and take a deep breath in and I can taste the spring. When summer comes around, and the bees are buzzing, and the hot sun beats on the back of my neck, I lay on the soft grass and listen, to the birds chirping a beautiful song, and the kids playing in the park. The sky is the bluest view in sight.