The Majestic Forest is My Home
It’s where health, healing, and life thrive freely
Terry Tempest Williams is quoted as saying
“ A forest is not a place to visit: it is home.”
That is a quote that resonates with all that is true to me. Any forest feels like home to me and can even be a comfy home if stranded there. I live in a rural area where nature is the known resource.
Amish country is what we call our community, where I reside. It’s what our area is known for. Old-order Dutchmen hold claim to most of the land here and with their families, are known as “The Amish”.
Horse & buggy travel the roads. Hay fields with haystacks stacked by hand splash the landscape. The warm orange glow coming from the windows in the evening is the candlelight or oil lamp used to light and warm the houses. The smoke rolling out of all the chimneys comes from the inside wood-burning stoves that cook food and heat the homes.
Natural living with natural resources is 95% natural to the community where I reside. We keep life natural so that natural life can live. Endangered species are looking for a spot for us to give.
The seventy-five-acre land I live on and enjoy is a large valley with one-third of it being a wooded hill. We call that hill- The Hill. It is an untouched naturally grown forest.
That forest grants this globe, our area community, and our family more than we could ever ask for. It contains more than we would ever expect to find. According to John Muir,
“ In every walk with nature, one receives more than he seeks.”
It is true, before even entering The Hill many treats can be found on the walk there. The wild field below contains medicinal plants that support the butterflies, birds, bees, and healthy healing human needs.
Looking around along the journey to the forest, we can see the King of the Forest as he feeds!
Meet the Pileated Woodpecker-A.K.A- Woody Woodpecker. We call him “Woody” and he lives in our Forest Hill. His loud sound had always been heard. The loud rhythm of his beak pecking wood echoes often throughout the valley here.
The pileated woodpecker is one of the loudest, largest, and most striking forest birds in North America. It has nearly two feet of a wing span. Woody wears black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming red crest. When this bird flies, gorgeous white flashes are visible under its wings.
This species became rare and endangered in eastern North America with the clearing of forests in centuries past, but has gradually increased in numbers again since about the beginning of the 20th century.
Throughout the years, no one had seen this bird in our area. The only evidence of his large presence had been seen when walking the forest. Wholes the size of a basketball have been found in the trees growing there.
When walking the forest, humungous piles of fresh sawdust can be seen at the base of the trees this rare bird has visited. Once the eyes see a fresh sawdust pile that large there is no way to deny a large fast pecker pecked that pile!
I had wished to see this beautiful bird in action for many years. Knowing this is a rare and endangered bird I felt blessed to share a residence whether it is seen or not. Then suddenly last spring while sitting creekside, I saw the baby bird grace our bird feeder!
Whether you do or don’t see this King of the Forest you can look for evidence of its existence while traveling through the forest. You can listen to the sounds of the forest too and if you hear that pecking rhythm echoing throughout the area, you could be close to a visual.
There is an Indigenous proverb that states…
“The forest is not a resource for us, it is life itself.”
There is vital truth in that quote. The forest is life. It lives and provides for the rest of the life around it. It produces clean, fresh air. It houses wildlife with protection. It feeds wildlife too for free. That wildlife is also You & Me! Did you know that we can drink health from a tree?
The forest makes its own music that contains the drumming of limbs and tapping of leaves. It dances with the wind and sings with a whistling sound. It tells us when the ground is dry. It turns over leaves as if it wants to cry. It communicates when a storm is coming around with its excited dance. Go ahead, look, and listen whenever you get the chance.
Until you do, I want to leave with you, a desire to walk the majestic forest. It is life containing life within. It is life you can see that will give you a big grin. Remember to keep the forest healthy. To let it die would be a sin. Let it be natural so that the King of the Forest can at life-win!
In case you want to sing like the forest I found a song for you to try. See if you can sing it while you walk the forest and let the world go by. It’s a song about the king of the forest. It could bring you joy and put a spark in your eye. Sing it knowing this bird lives in the forest and we want neither of them to die.
What? You say you don’t sing… It’s actually not your thing. You’re not a bird with the largest wing. You’re sad about your last cheap fling. I’m telling you the cure is to sing. Make it your thing.
Walk through the forest and see the bird with the biggest wing. That bird is rare and endangered- still, it will peck and sing!
The encouragement to sing while walking the forest comes from the evidence-based truth that music can bring you out of a funk. Jay Renée tells us about it in her write below…
Christopher Kroon wrote about science looking at the power of music. There is proof that sound and song do matter.
Let us know when you walk the forest and sing your songs. Tell us of the health and healing found in that experience. If along the way, you see a birch tree- Drink from it!
Thank you to Sahil Patel for introducing these great quotes of truth used in my writing above and the Nature Column prompt of Majestic Forest that caused this story to be written.