Sally Wren Stevens
Forest Therapy Guide
When I am Among the Trees
by Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
Some of my earliest memories are of playing under a lush tree-canopy as a child. My backyard was green and verdant, and I’d spend hours alone in this suburban forest, playing with the rocks, flowers, wee-beasts, and trees. I recall feeling a deep connection to all of nature, but the trees- The Standing Ones- that connection felt even deeper and more personal. For example, I had a favorite Birch tree that I spent many weekly hours with throughout the seasons for a decade (or so) of my childhood. I would often sit perched up in her majestic branches and joyfully wonder-away the hours, taking breaks to play in or climb through her branches, often not coming down until my mother called me in for a meal or for the night. Sometimes my brother and I would build a fort around her strong center and get dropped into our imaginary worlds, or a girlfriend and I would practice our parallel bar moves on a lengthy horizontal branch she possessed. Other times I’d sit at her strong base, extruding roots nestling me in as I’d bring my worries, sorrows, and wishes to be heard. I’d wonder how she might guide me if we could have a "real" conversation and often, not long afterwards, clarity of "what to do next" in a situation would come to me. “Are we actually *communicating?”, I'd then wonder.
That felt sense of kinship and connection I had as a child has significantly shaped the work I do in the world as a Shinrin Yoku Forest Bathing Guide, Founder and Director of a 100% outdoor “forest school” program based in the Albuquerque area (www.solforestschool.com), and as a Nature & Placed-based Educational Consultant.
In Shinrin Yoku Forest Therapy, we like to say that “the Guide opens the door, and the forest provides the medicine”. On each guided walk with me you will be provided with a series of gentle invitations that are designed to bring you back into your sensory body. These invitations help you to slow down, tune in, and feel connected to your body, which often leads to a state of openness, or even “wondering mind”, as I like to call it. The “wondering mind” is a place of calm, hopeful, peaceful possibility which I have found to be an especially comforting place to be in when life is presenting us with challenges.
I have been practicing Shinrin Yoku Forest Therapy for nearly a decade now as a Guide, which is about the same amount of time I was in deep connection to “my” Birch tree. Guiding brings me great joy and I feel grateful I get to do it in such a magical place, with the Rio Grande to the west, mountains to the north and east, and the desert lands to the south. I hope you will come Walk the Wonder Path with me!
*When I look back on the time spent with my precious Birch tree, I can honestly say that we were communicating and while I cannot begin to explain “how” this was happening, I do know it was. About 5 years ago she came to me strongly during meditation after not thinking of or seeing her for decades. Following that experience I asked someone living in my childhood hometown to check in on her. Sadly, this person shared that she had just recently been taken down. This response gave me chills, but it was quickly replaced with a welling-up of tears. And…a piece of my heart broke off that day, like a tree losing a leaf…