The Woods

There is a place that to me is a little bit of Heaven & Magic. I love going out to the woods, a 300 or so acre park or natural area, here in the heart of Fairfax County. There are a few streams running through it, hills, and paths intertwine. I love how it has been left up to nature (in most aspects) trees fall, paths change, and it evolves naturally over time. In a day and age where everything is accessible for all, and carefully managed and landscaped, it is wonderful to find a place that has been able to be left in its natural beauty, to the forces of nature and time.
I have grown up here, I have changed over time with these trees. Places have changed, things fallen and lost, new growth and changes. It is a place that challenges you, to test your skills and abilities. Trees have fallen on to the path challenging you to go around them and find a new way or to climb over and under them surmounting the obsticle in your way. The stream has wandered and changed, forged a new way bringing in rocks & sand, changing the banks and rapids, even washing away a bridge.There is a trail now that many years ago used to be a dirt road, now there is one dirt trail with grass growing on each side, who used to travel down this dirt road, where were they going. Like these woods time has made changes, small ones, big ones, things you can not see until years later when they are ready to be noticed, changes in me.
Like walking through the wardrobe, falling down the rabbit hole or sailing off into the mythical fog; A few steps in to the woods and you are lost from every one & every thing. The sounds of everyday mechanical life disappear replaced with birds chirping, unknown animals scampering around. You can let your mind run wild, for you don't know if around the next bend you will encounter a squirrel, birds, fox, deer, a snake or walk into a spider's web, or a magical talking wolf. You learn to take each step as it comes, to accept what is, and be prepared for the next.
Off the path I see a new trail beginning to form, not cleared away and clearly marked, but just a faint path of crushed leaves & I follow it. Slowly the trail fades away and I am in a magical space. Fields of ferns slowly unfolding in the morning warmth, I wonder of the mythical brownies, fairies & trolls that live among them. I also wonder of who was here before me. These trees have been growing for hundreds of years; Others must have come and walked here too, who were they, what were their stories, did they come hunting for food? Fallen trees lay one after the other like dominoes and you wonder if anyone heard them fall. I also think of how did they fall? Was it a strong wind storm? or just time to lay down.  In the new pool of sunlight created, there is new growth an explosion of young trees and plants reaching for the sky, the race to see who will get to be the tallest.
I grew up here, walked these paths for many years and made a few new ones along the way. As a kid I used to run through the woods making my own way discovering, but now I stay on the trail as if stepping off I would be lost and not able to return. Am I afraid to take a chance, to find new worlds, to find my own path instead of following where others have gone? Perhaps, I am. Perhaps as you grow older you don't need a great challenge to have change occur. You accept that over time small changes happen and the path is never the same. Perhaps you know that in life you have to stay on the main path, that you can wander off for awhile to discover new things, but you return to that path as adult life requires you to remain the same and make small changes over time.
I am ready to jump off that worn path and forge on my own, but I still need to gather my bread crumbs to leave to be able to find my way back if I should need it. Though while I look at these woods as a place to change and challenge myself. I also look to the woods for comfort and security, that the trees and paths will be the same as before and will always welcome me back. Even as it & I change, I still find my sense of self here in the Woods.