One With Nature

I am not an outdoorsy person. I haven't been for many years. My idea of a hike is lugging my bags from the parking lot to a hotel lobby. This weekend I did something totally out of character and took a friend kayaking for her fiftieth birthday. A wonderful thing happened. Journeying through the Dora Canal I found myself relaxing more and more with every stroke of the paddle. The great blue herons standing among the cypress trees, the alligators gliding through the water, the fecund smell of marsh, the long beards of moss reaching down to touch the water, all brought a flood of childhood memories rushing back to me.

When I was a little girl almost every weekend my family would load up the camper and head into the nearby Ocala National Forest for a weekend of "roughing it." Back then I loved exploring the many hunting trails in the forest and was never once frightened of being alone or getting lost in the vast forest. I came across a bobcat once and fancied petting it but it ran off into the trees. At night we would cut palmettos and strip the leaves from the sharp branches to make a perfect marshmallow spear. I remember watching my marshmallow turn black and begin to slide off the stick before I would jerk it out of the fire and plop it piping hot into my mouth. The wood smoke from the fire smelled wonderful. I loved watching the sparks dance in the air. Early morning the sounds of nature would awaken me: Birds twittering, squirrels chattering, the soft splash of a jumping fish in the lake. I could barely get my swimsuit on fast enough before I was barreling full speed down the sandy beach to the clear spring-fed lake. My brother and I would sit on the sandy bottom near the shoreline, trying to be as still as statues while we watched the minnows nibble our toes.

As an adult I still lived near enough that old campground to visit it on sweltering summer afternoons. I drove straight from work armed with a floating raft and my swimsuit. Parking near the lake I once again raced down the sandy slope to plunge into the cool green water. On those lazy afternoons sometimes the only living creatures I saw were the peacocks that roamed the shoreline and an alligator sunning itself on the beach. I floated in the middle of the lake, all alone, a tiny speck in the universe, emptying my mind of clutter and filling it with peace and light.

I still live pretty close to the Ocala National Forest but I am an infrequent visitor. Adult life has intruded on my chances for an occasional solitude in nature; work has to be done, bills have to be paid, meetings have to be attended. I am a very busy person. The Dora Canal is less than ten minutes from my home, and the whole kayaking adventure took less than half a day. Surely I can make time to let that little girl who loves the water and the trees go out and play every once in a while. It would probably be good for grown-up me, as well.

I will be kayaking again next weekend. Perhaps I will see you there. Maybe you will glimpse an adventurous child having the time of her life.