“Into the woods I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”- JM

Reflecting at the lake always gives pause to my bounty of existential distress. In order to be still and alone, I walked away from the cacophony of the lakegoers, along a path that is barely there, praying for perspective.

I smelled death and came upon the skeleton of a snake, still not picked clean by the isopods who have  sustained themselves through the gift of dead flesh for 300 million years. Reminding me that every life is a result of billions upon billions of  deaths. 

I found my way back to a flush of Reshi. Their bounty more plentiful than last year, all made possible by the corpse of a hemlock. Showing me that medicine is everywhere, and that it too is born of decay. 

I took only pictures, because knowing where there is treasure doesn’t make it mine to take. There are others more in need of medicine than me right now. 

Heading back, I almost stepped on the discarded exoskeleton of a lake creature. They had spent years of life underwater, until they felt the undeniable urge to claim an entirely new form. To live out their days as a being wholly opposite the identity of their birth, in every way. 

I returned to the medley of my family and others, my footsteps were drowned out by the sheer chaos of it all. I am so privileged to have access to the wild. Without a single word, the lakeshore was able to show me how far we have fallen from nature’s Way. 

Now, we are scared and confused; without the resources we need, though the world is rich with them. We have stopped listening to the universe, and spend our lives yelling at each other instead. As if any of us know anything, about any of it. To drive the point home; a bald eagle flew across the quiet side of the lake and perched on the top of a pine, watching its home boil with human invasion from a distance. 

Be well.