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You are here: Home / Spring / Peace of the Pine Forest

Peace of the Pine Forest

May 29, 2022 by Denise Brake 5 Comments

I’ve been crying a lot lately—not for me and my station on this good, green Earth, but for other people. I cried for the victims of Putin’s war—the mothers and children who fled their homes, the fathers and brothers who stayed behind to fight, the old and infirmed who couldn’t flee and were bombed to death, and for every lost life and destroyed city. The tears escape my eyes when I watch the news or see the headlines—it is my knowing that what I am witnessing is antithetical to Goodness. Last week it was for the grocery shoppers in Buffalo, New York who were targeted and killed because of their skin color. This week, the tears flowed again for the young students and teachers at Uvalde, Texas. It could literally happen at any school at any time. Even the mass shootings happen so frequently that the mourning for the one before has hardly begun before it is ‘lost’ to the coverage of the newest one. Not to mention all the other, pervasive deaths by violence. Not to mention the perverse political rhetoric around the ‘reasons’ for the deaths. It is soul-crushing.

I know for sure that the fallout from each one of these violent losses of life is far-reaching and will be long-lived. Many of the victims, the families, the first responders, and the witnesses will carry the burden of trauma with them for their lifetime. The price we as individual persons and as a society pay for violence is unbelievably staggering. In the midst of a political culture that is not doing all it can to help prevent such tragedies, an individual person can feel overwhelmed and impotent in the face of it all. What do we do? Let me begin with a story that presented me with an important lesson.

Seventeen years ago when my father-in-law died, my brother-in-law sent a message to us that ended with “Peace be with you.” I was already in a state of activation—death, grief, loss, change—and I remember exclaiming rather indignantly to Chris, ” How can we have peace at a time like this?!” I did not understand at the time that my brother-in-law was offering a gift to each of us individually—that in spite of our loss and grief, we could have the comfort of peace. I did not accept that gift at the time—I didn’t know how—but since that time, I have not forgotten that offering. I have tried again and again and again to find peace within myself in the midst of my own pain and loss and of that of the world’s. A substantial part of finding peace in a time of crisis or a reaction to it, is learning to calm down our activated bodies—and when a person has an ingrained trauma response, it takes lots of practice to change. One of my practices to calm down and find peace is to go to the woods—I did it intuitively as a child, and I do it intentionally as an older adult. I find peace in the Pine forest.

So we went to Warner Lake County Park where I left Chris and his healing hip to sit beside the lake. He could see the Pine forest across the water. He was in the midst of the noise and exuberance of young adults who were already free for the summer and were anxious to sunbathe and swim in the chilly lake water. I tried to appreciate their exuberance even as I gladly walked away from their noise. Come walk with me into the forest.

Warner Lake and the Pine forest
Trees around Warner Lake
The inside of an old tree
Columbines
Columbine
Columbine and spider
Bellworts
Large-flowered Bellwort
White Violet
Wild Geranium
Marsh Marigolds growing in the muck
Plum Creek
Ferns growing on an old fallen log
Trillium
New leaves on an old Oak
Smooth Yellow Violet
Pine forest
Sunlight on young Pines
Bluebead Lilies
Path of peace
The smell of Pine needles
Red Pines
Hidden Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Potential
Starry False Solomon’s Seal
Columbine
Plum Creek
Common Blue Violets

According to florgeous.com, Violets symbolize honesty, protection, dreams, healing, and remembrance. May it be so. Peace of the Pine forest be with you.

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Filed Under: Spring Tagged With: pain and peace, peace, pine forest, pines, Warner Lake County Park, wildflowers

Comments

  1. Stephanie Young says

    May 29, 2022 at 7:55 pm

    I needed this this week. You took me along with you again.
    Thank you, Denise!

    Reply
    • Denise Brake says

      May 30, 2022 at 10:08 am

      You are welcome, Stef. It was a tough week.

      Reply
  2. Muriel Keil says

    May 29, 2022 at 8:11 pm

    Thank you for the walk in the woods I am not able to do.
    Please put the labels above the pictures. I think you did that in the past and I wish you would go back to that practice. You. have a good eye and steady hand. I will remember this date of posting as “memorable”.

    Reply
    • Denise Brake says

      May 30, 2022 at 10:10 am

      Thank you, Muriel. I most often write the text above the pictures, but when I don’t do that, the only option for captions is below the picture.

      Reply
  3. Bob Shoemake says

    May 31, 2022 at 4:46 pm

    These pictures are just stunning! You see so much! One day I would like to walk with you on one of your nature visits. I know that we would go slowly, and that would be just fine.
    Thanks, Denise, for this gift.

    Reply

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I love Nature! I love its beauty, its constancy, its adaptiveness, its intricacies, and its surprises. I think Nature can teach us about ourselves and make us better people. Read More…

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