Naturally Connected Young People

In the Woods

by Kaitlyn

I stared at the rays of sun poking through the lime green trees. Glistening dewdrops twinkled on the abundant shrubbery, and I wondered how the path here was so worn down as there was not a single sign of humans anywhere here. The birds sang in harmony apart from the coo of a single wood pigeon that boomed over the clearing. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a brown blur make a dart for some brambles and I looked just in time to see a rabbit tail slink into the shadows.

Then I saw it. The tree at the centre of the clearing. It was an oak with a trunk at least five meters wide and its branches stretched high into the canopy; I clambered through the bracken and squelched through the mud to get to it. But once I was there, I stood on a root and heaved myself up onto the trunk-like branch.

As I sat, I rummaged through my bag and found my book. It was truly magical reading there. The birds sang louder as time went on and the rabbit even came out eventually and hopped around for a bit. It felt like the weather was responding to my book as the winds picked up when they picked up in my book and the sun glared at me every time I was reading about sun.

I felt entranced for hours before the hoot of an owl made me realise it had become dusk now and the birds were silent. I looked around. The bats were flying through the trees, and an owl was staring me in the face, a fox slinked through the brambles and in the distance, I could see the pinks, purples and oranges of the sunset.

 I had set my book down as I was watching and now a moth was resting on the word “peaceful” I could hear the faint trickle of the stream and the sound of something splashing in it. I yawned, it was so calm I could almost fall asleep on the branch that was cradling me and as I opened my bag to put my book back, I realised I had forgotten to eat my lunch!