Have you ever heard the trees?

For the most part I have been feeling rather philosophical. This is probably due to the fact that I am beginning to write a new chapter to my life. While I do reflect on my life during times like this, lately I have found that I often will rather sit back and enjoy the little things.

My new “hobby” I guess you can call it is to just go out and take a walk around a local park. Its funny, I have lived by this park my entire life and overall I love going to it and just walking along its bike path, usually with the company of my family or close friends.

These social walks are always fun and a relaxing way to spend time with others. I find it difficult however to listen to the sounds of nature when I’m with the company of others and you can never really enjoy the serenity of the woods this way.

Which brings me to the title of this entry, have you ever heard the trees?

Now that sentence sound completely nuts to anyone who may be reading this. Believe me I thought I was going nuts the first time I actually listened on one of my walks. But I swear the trees can talk. Not in the conventional way we humans communicate but they can express some, for lack of a better word, emotion.

Twice now I have gone walking just before it rained, and twice I felt similar feelings emanating from the woods.

The trees get excited when they know the rain is coming. Their leaves begin to rustle vigorously with only a light breeze blowing. Just the whole atmosphere changes. Before the rain, the woods had a quiet energy to them and once a rainstorm approaches the woods felt charged up. Once the rain begins to fall you almost feel their elation at the downpour of life sustaining water.

Even the birds and the bugs are different. The birds all start looking for cover as do the bugs. I never would have thought any of this was possible, had I not gone walking on my own to listen and absorb the energy of the world around me.

I encourage anyone to take some time out of their days, even if its just 20 min to just go out and take in some fresh air. Enjoy the sounds of the world and feel the harmony of the earth.

I ask again, have you ever heard the trees?

~Meg

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.

-Lord (George Gordon) Byron, from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

I've got to have a place where I can find peace of mind.

-Princess of Wales Diana

Being True to Yourself

So after a rather long break from updates, I've decided to make a new post.

First I'd like to share a quick story, complete with a moral at the end of the it, as all good stories have messages to give.

There was once a girl who met a boy. To keep things simple we shall call them John and Jane. Now when John and Jane first met the got along rather well. They both had similar interests and wanted the same things out of life. Seeing as they got along so well with each other John and Jane decided they would date one another since it just seemed like the thing to do. So John and Jane would go out and spend time with each other and the weeks and months passed by.

Now poor Jane, no matter how she tried, she just did not feel that spark of "true love". Don't get Jane wrong she did love John, but it was a different kind of love. As time went by and talks about their future became serious, Jane started to get an uneasy feeling. This nagging unease continued on as the months went by. Finally Jane could no longer ignore how she was feeling.

Jane took a good look at her and John's relationship and realized it was not all she thought it was. She realized too many concessions were being made and Jane no longer knew who she was. Finally Jane realized what she had to do to but could Jane go on with it. On the one hand she would be crushing poor John but being true to herself, and on the other John would be happy but she would be betraying herself and who she truly is.

What should Jane do?

So as you can see this story does not have an ending, but the moral should be clear. Do you sacrifice your feelings for another persons?

I'm sure we have all been in a situation similar to this, although not necessarily in the dating world. In this story the answer seems quite simple, and very black and white but as we all know the real world isn't like that, its usually far more messy and grey.

This is life's great moral dilemma, do you sacrifice your own values and beliefs to make other people happy.

~Meg

Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself.
Being true to anyone else or anything else is...impossible.

-Richard Bach, Illusions

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world. Yet from this lesson thou will learn to avoid the frog's foolish ambition of swelling to rival the bigness of the ox.

-Miguel de Cervantes

There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum. At that time you must accept yourself. It is not anymore what you will become. It is what you are and always will be.

-John Fowles