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THE ELIXIR & EXCELLENCE OF FOREST BATHING
Soaking Deep
I took my soul for a walk in the forest & found my lost self
“What you extend you are.” A Course in Miracles
These thoughts I cast before me like seeds
erupting in one deliberately slowed
heartbeat into redwoods, sequoias, Hinoki cypress.
Overlong I have wandered
within thickets of honey locusts and hawthorns —
invasive if not properly managed,
their dirty work fathoms deep beneath
manicured thorns and briar patches
of disinformation berried with red caps.
It is so tempting, feels so right,
so righteous to judge them in turn.
Yet what I project, I become.
Seasons of misguided epiphanies
and willful journeys
have tattooed my soul with this lesson.
And, so, I open
as a moonflower pirouetting,
into the embrace
of my sibling redwoods and sequoias –
Hinoki cypress sacrificing
themselves, transfigured into a soaking tub.
