A Special Place

Do you have a special place you go to recharge your soul?  A place where you can let go of any worry, fear or stress and just let the deep, calming energy of the world envelop you?

As an Earth Child, I need to spend as much time in the outdoors as I possibly can.  It's more than just appreciating the beauty, I physically need the connection.  I get depressed when I spend too much time indoors.  The energy of Nature serves to ground and re-energize me.

I was blessed (or wise enough to choose, however you want to look at it) to have nature loving parents and spent the first 12 years of my life growing up in a lakeside house surrounded by forest.  My earliest memories all revolve in some way around nature - learning to swim, fishing with Dad, nature walks with Mom while she pointed out all the different animals, insects and plants, losing myself for hours and hours in the forest to be called in by Mom's well-honed whistle....

My truest home.

When life events came about that caused us to move away from this cherished home, I sought out nature areas; ponds in our subdivision, a secluded patch of land owned by a deaconry and forest preserves became my secondary homes.  At the time I did not fully understand why I was so connected to nature to the point that I needed to be in it, I just knew that my soul felt better having visited.

Lone Grove Forest Preserve, Kaneville, IL
(picture from Flikr - by Ryan Afflerbaugh)

As I got older and time became less of my own and more devoted to work, I started seeking out nature areas during breaks and lunch hours.  And wouldn’t you know it…. Every place I worked had easy and close access to some kind of natural area.  I’m not sure if this was divine guidance or my higher self working, but either way the end result was the same.  As the stresses of adult life became more and more, I always had the much needed healing energy of Mother Earth close by.

In October of 2011 (just days before my 30^th birthday) I changed jobs and found myself working in a sparsely populated area of rich, gorgeous beauty; an area surrounded by bluffs and forest, with a large river lazily meandering through it all.  Across the river from where I work is a state preserve that has fallen by the wayside due to lack of funding.  But as long as the park stays open, that serves me just fine.  This means that the park is rarely visited, and many of the areas are closed off and have been left to go wild.  Enter my joyous heart!

It was the winter time when I first started going to the park.  I had finally settled into the new job and found that old familiar need to get out and feel the Earth’s energy.  My first visits into the preserve were little more than forays.  I found a few paths and would follow them a bit, not knowing where they went or how long it would take to walk them fully.  Each time I visited I would go further and further.  While I discovered new places, I watched as winter gave way to beautiful spring, and relished the wildness of a preserve lost to mainstream attention.

Virginia Blue Bells

Early Spring Moss

As spring gave way to summer, the park opened up the camping areas, and with the increased presence of others, I was pushed further into the preserve to find solitude.  I came across a closed off area with a constructed shelter next to the river, and spent the next few weeks going here, taking my shoes off and standing next to the river in my bare feet, practicing breathing and sometimes doing a few yoga moves to further move my energy around.

I can’t say exactly what made me move even further into the preserve… perhaps I’d gone to the sheltered place and found someone else there…. But on that fateful day I pulled up to another closed off area, this one looking like just a parking lot.  I was called to it, however, so I parked, stepped out and walked to the end of the lot.  There was a small path leading through tall prairie that I followed.  I was rewarded at the end of the path to a large clearing next the river, and in the middle of this clearing, towering over all, was the largest Oak tree I have yet to see.

My Tree

I knew immediately that this was a special place.  The energy was powerful, ancient.  I could feel the presence not only of the elements, but of something else… something that was close to our world, but maybe not exactly of it.  I would spend as many lunch hours as possible here; taking my crystals with me to lie in the grass and allow the stabilizing energy of Earth to realign them.  I would meditate, read, write… sometimes just lie in the grass and watch the clouds, all the while enjoying the gift of this beautiful place.

When autumn came, and life began to go dormant, I stopped visiting as often.  I could feel the shift in the energy, and while it was still a natural area, that power had diminished, and honestly it made me a bit sad.  I would still try to visit at least once a week, but it just wasn’t the same.  It felt like a friend had left, and I kept going back to where they last were, longing to see a glimpse of them again.  

We have had a hard Spring this year.  It is already mid-April and we have yet to see green in the undergrowth of the forests.  I am hoping that when Maiden Spring finally wrestles total control back from Old Man Winter, the power will return to my most Special Place. 

Waiting......

In the mean time, I at least still have other special places that I visit and re-energize in.

Hoover Forest Preserve, Yorkville, IL

If you have a special place, I encourage you to comment below or on the Nurture Spirit Facebook page to share your story or even some pictures.  I would love to read about them, and to see them!

♥

Baby Tree .... Life is Returning.....