Nature, The Great Outdoors

     I love being outside in nature. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be agoraphobic and be trapped inside your house. I walk alot, I don't run because I want to enjoy my surroundings.
     This morning I could smell the apple blossoms as I walked by the tree. I watched a small bird, wings fluttering as he ascended upwards.
     I was a tomboy as a child, I climbed trees and played down in the woods near the stream. A celebrity that I like and whose blog I follow was recently lamenting about the population growth and how we would run out of space on the planet. She went on to share memories of her childhood, which was a great deal earlier than mine, she shared how she played in lots as a child. I am thinking she is referring to empty lots where there were no buildings. That is a strange concept to me as I have grown up in the country. I could not imagine what life would have been like not to be surrounded by trees, streams and lakes, not to mention the ocean nearby.
     I will never forget the year I learned to swim. My parents had gone on a trip to Indiana, then on to Nashville, Tennesse. They took my older sister and dropped her in Massachusetts to stay with my aunt and uncle. They left me in the care of my Grandmother Sanborn. That afternoon I decided to do some tree climbing on my own. My Grandmother Glaude lived next door and there were four huge maple trees that grew on her lawn next to the road. I decided to climb all the way to the top of one of the trees, the same tree we had built our treehouse in. I commenced to climbing the tree, I got near the top, the branches became smaller and smaller, I stepped on a branch, it broke, I lost my footing and started to fall, just to give you an idea of how far I fell, the tree was probably about the height of a three story building. I fell all the way down, my foot caught on the second branch up and there I hung upside down in that tree. I started to yell, my cousin happened to be outside and ran to get help, but my Uncle Fred came driving by in his car. He pulled over and took me out of that tree, He decided my grandmother wasn't watching me the way she should have been and took me with him. It was the same week they were renting a cottage. My uncle faithfully would hold me up and instruct me on how to swim, paddling my arms and kicking my legs. I discovered how much I loved to swim and at first light I would be up, out of my bed and in the water. As much as I could I would be swimming. I still love to swim. I go to the railroad tracks about 3 miles from my house. Nobody swims there so I am always alone. I love to float in the water and look up at the sky. Sometimes I like to watch my hair floating in the water. There is a painting I love, it's called Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais. It reminds me of how I feel when I swim.
     Not only was I a tomboy, but I was also an idealist child. I remember laying on my grandmother's lawn and thinking about how wonderful it would, be if everyone in the world loved one another, I could picutre everyone on planet earth in a big circle holding hands. I had no concept of how many people lived on the earth and how big that circle would have been.
     I am still an idealist who loves happy endings. As I walked this morning I pondered on life as I am wont to do. I thought about what we hold on to. Is it the bad things in life or that which is good. Not to deny that bad things happen because they do, but what are you holding on to. I will finish this blog entry by saying I was watching Oprah this week. It is the last week of her talk show. I watched as people were telling her how much she has meant to them, one person said, "you taught me to forgive." Forgiveness is a powerful thing, it doesn't say it's o.k. to hurt others, but it says I forgive. The reason it's so powerful is because it sets us free, free from the wrongs done to us. Knowing forgiveness not only sets us free from the wrongs done to us, but the wrongs we may have done.  Love is the house I want to dwell in and forgiveness is the pillow I want to lay my head on.