Tag: nature

Mother Nature Rises Above Its Raising But Remembers Its Roots

Robin Donnelly
The Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN.

This photo came up today in my memories and it told me that we should rise above our raising while remembering our roots. We grow to be our biggest and best if we can see over our family lineage and evolve beyond the deeper layers. We need to dig deep and turn over the past to do that.

That can be difficult to do as we are busy building our lives when we’re young. It’s only with the raising of our own seedlings and the empty-nest they leave in our branches and the retirement of busy that we can start to see how well we did or didn’t do with our rising and soaring to new heights.

It’s only when we have the time and silence to sit under our own canopy that we get to decide whether it’s the leaves that made us beautiful or if it’s our barrenness.

I was once a lush green tree, full of green and colorful dangling leaves that twirled in the wind. They turned vibrant reds and golds and were my crowning glory. My reasons for living. They made me feel beautiful. But, they fell to the ground in the Fall. They made sounds like a crackling fire as they played at my feet but blew away in the four winds.

I am a barren tree now. My lush foliage is off building their own forests and deepening their roots in different landscapes. My bark is worn and my branches gnarly. I stand, but not so tall anymore. I’m bent and stiff, not easily swayed; concentrated, wise. I stand firm knowing I have given my everything.

Someday, when my seedlings are thick at their trunks, bifurcated and firmly rooted in the ground, when they are leafless and their parts have long been blown away in the wind, and time has slowed, I hope they take time to contemplate their own evolution under the shade of what they’ve built. And, when they look back over their own family lineage, I hope they see me —standing as tall as I possibly can, smiling up at them. I hope they are happy to acknowledge me, and consider me one of their most adoring fun fans and original sources of who they’ve grown up to be.

If I have but one leaf left, I will wave hello. Maybe even flip them a bird.  

Hiking Field Notes and Climbing Life’s Mountains

Robin Donnelly
House Mountain

Sometimes all we can focus on is the few steps right in front of us. The terrain is rocky and full of roots and we could fall if we’re not careful. And if we look too far ahead we’ll just get overwhelmed with how much further up we have left to climb.

Sometimes, we’re scared of falling so we hunker down and concentrate hard on making it through the tough terrain. We’re alone and no one knows of our struggle to get through.

Sometimes it’s necessary to stop and catch our breath. We need to hold on to something to steady ourselves or we need to reach out for someone’s hand to help us up.

When we feel like quitting this is a good time to stop and absorb all the beauty that surrounds us. We need to take field notes and look back over the terrain we’ve already hiked and appreciate where we are on the path. We’re in the process of doing big, difficult things, and rest and assessment are all a part of our growth.

Sometimes we’re trying so hard we can feel our heart beat in our ears wondering if we’re about to faint from sheer exhaustion. Our muscles are seizing up and burning and we are working our body to the max. We’re not sure we can go on much longer, but we continue on anyway. We miss things along the way due to our laser focus.

Other times it’s smooth sailing downhill, our body is limber now and cooperating nicely with us and when things are level again, it’s nice to report back to others all the good spots along the way as well as all the things they should to watch out for.

Occasionally a gnat swarms within inches of our face, and there’s a switchback up ahead. We swat and sigh knowing that no matter how far up we go, we will still have annoyances like these in life. Pretty soon, and without realizing — the gnat problem and switchbacks are gone and we think, “that wasn’t so bad.”

We’ve learned we have to lean into the unknown to rise; head down mostly— our upper body, with some sort of “just knowing” guiding us into the unfamilar. We’ve learned we have to lean back into ourselves and hope our knees don’t give out as we listen to our intuition to descend.

When things get too twisty turny, the path disappears under thick brush, or a tree blocks our path and we’re not quite sure where to go next… we can always turn back around and start another day.

I yelled to some hikers as we were descending and they were climbing past us that, “we didn’t make it all the way to the top.” A woman yelled back, “There’s no shame in that! There always tomorrow!”

When we finally reached the car, I ate my peanut butter and jelly sandwich like the ravenous-from-playing-outside-little-girl I used to be, and thought, from God’s mouth to my ears. Sometimes, when we’re open to it, we hear what we’re supposed to hear. And that is, there’s no shame in whatever stage of mountain climbing we’re in as long as we’re trying. And tomorrow is as good a day as any to try again.

So stop. Look around. Take a deep breath. Rest. Ask for help if you need it. Grab ahold of something to steady yourself if need be. Tolerate the gnats, and laugh at the switchbacks in life. And know that there is no shame in where you are on your path up the mountain of your life.

There is always tomorrow to try again if you can’t make it to the top of your mountain today. And it’s nice to help others along our path and yell some words of encouragement from the distance.

You can do this!

#fieldnotes #hiking #mountainmuse #theclimb #nature #healing