One touch of nature makes all the world kin – John Muir
Arriving at Acadia National Park is like enjoying Nature’s wild party feeling intoxicated without alcohol, drug or sex.
As a city girl who grew up in Hong Kong and became a workaholic in New York, my attention to trees, forest, rocks, and mountains in all their manifold shape and form is rare. I noticed flowers, birds or pigeons when they appeared unexpectedly on my way to work or home, but never had I given them any thought or care.
Last week, Ken and I spent four days on Mount Desert Island – indulging our senses sailing on the water as we tried to catch glimpses of harbor porpoise jumping, peregrine-falcon flying, or leatherback turtle swimming!
Wildflowers rose to greet us everywhere we looked.
Wood lilies and lupine, rugosa rose and yellow iris – each content in its form. Everything that was previously unknown to me became instant confidantes, whispering secrets of their beauty as I bend over to smell and kiss their face.
Thoreau’s essay came to mind as I stood to inhale the fragrance of the woods.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach… I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life…”
Life is about sharing the path, as John Muir’s quote poignantly stood at the Visitor Center of Acadia before we began our journey down the Jordan Pond.
Nature has its magical touch – cleansing and rejuvenating my breath, my countenance, and inner life.
I left last Monday knowing that I must go back again and again – with fresh or tired eyes, happy or weary spirit, so to become a part of nature as nature has already become a part of me.
