I was up in a high place with a friend for afternoon tea today. I am head over heels in love with this big piece of wild country. Do you ever find yourself falling in love with the land around you? I mean, really falling in love, badly, terribly, righteously — like the love for the land might crush you into pieces and you can’t really tell where you begin and end when you are walking across it, threading a tight path around aspens and sagebrush, and squinting at the douglas fir as they glimmer in the sun and wind…because the very dirt and root and tooth of it all has become you? Maybe you feel there’s a seamless nature to the interface between you and the stone and the air and the mountain slopes? Maybe this is what animals feel: simply and truly a part of it all, born into belonging with their claws, feathers and fur. I love this land like I’m going to be lost if I lose it. And I suppose, in a way, I would be. For right now, I have to be out in it, every day. Being here makes everything in life so rich and good. Food tastes better. Sleep is deeper. Comforts are pure luxury. I think this is the way it’s meant to be, the way it was always meant to be.
yes!!!!
i feel more attached to the land every day.
it’s hard to be away; i long for it when i’m gone.
we are rooting here.
You are totally rooting. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, my friend.
I feel that way about our wild central north pacific coast. there is 7 miles of wide wild beach in my little town, all lovely and lively. the beach is the left side of town, the right side is vast forest. civilization meanders along the center – highway 101 which is main street for us. I greet the beach and have conversation and am forlorn on days I don’t get my feet sandy. I can hear waves crashing right now in the dark and the wind is picking up. rain tonight…
I live in N. California, and I know what of which you speak — that lovely song of Highway 1 and 101 and the trees that spread out on one side and the wild wild cliffs of the other, the endless ocean, the briny air. I feel such gratitude for it. I can tell you do too.
AHhhhhhh….the Northern California coastal highway is incredible. Vickie, beautiful little comment. THANK YOU!
I have to agree with both of you — rugged coastline stirs the soul.
So true. I know what you mean about falling in love with the land. I think it has happened a thousand times to me, perhaps every time I get to be out in the wild, and even driving past the trees on my street. Definitely the way it was meant to be.
I think, if everyone could fall in love with the land at least once, every single day…the world would be a different place.
wow. this is beautifully written, and i empathize with the feeling… even though i’ve spent most of my life chasing cities, it means especially much for me, a writer, artist, business owner, who can literally choose to live anywhere, that i live and settle down in the places that i do.
thank you for this wonderful piece of writing.
Sway — 🙂
Thank you.
There’s land, in the cities too, to fall in love with.
Thanks for being here, you talented beauty.
Yes. I love the land this way, because I know no other way:
“so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.”
~Pablo Neruda
Jenna.
Always brings the poetry to the picnic.
🙂
Beautiful Neruda. He always hits the nail on the head.
AMEN!!!!
Preach it sista!
love and light
xx
That land is YOUR land. It’s hugging you back! The trail below, is it one you run on sometimes? That view can’t be beat. Sounds like a perfect day!
That land is MY land!!! HEE HEE!
I know. I always believe I can feel it reaching up and taking hold of my roots. The trail below is actually a road! It goes up and over the mountains and all the way over to a different mountain valley. I never run it. When I come here, I come here to walk and explore the forest and make my way up to a high place. The view is wonderful. If you click on the image, you can JUST see the 9000ft peaks, snow capped, in Arbon Valley — the valley to the west of the Portneuf valley — which is the valley Pocatello is situated in.
It is. It is so very much the way it is supposed to be. I feel so complete when I’m outside and connected with the earth. Invited by a wise old oak to climb and spend time among his limbs, feeling everything it has lived over the years. Standing in my river feeling its life flow, and noticing how I’m part of that flow of time and energy. It’s. Just. So. Good.
Love ya.
I’m glad you’re living it and feeling it and being a part of it too. It makes the cells hum.
Love you back.
X
TRU WUV- Ain’t it the Truth!! I dream for that life, every single day.
You are one lucky gal…stunning.
You just have to find it, wherever you are. It’s there if you go looking for it.
Always love having you here, Lu.
XX
The weight of that truth can be an awesome and fearful (in the very best sense of the word) feeling. To know… to absolutely know… that you are a part of everything and everything is a part of you. To feel the vibration of life in all things – the Creator’s will that brought each stone, grass, animal, person into being – to be aware and at awe of it all brings the truth of self and wholeness to a new level.
Beautiful photo! And now… I want some tea!
“fearful” as in honor and respect and deep truth. I know what you mean. It’s that feeling of being minute and enormous…simultaneously. To have a place, to be nothing at all…simultaneously.
Beautiful comment from you, Jennifer. Thank you!
X
Yesyesyesyesyes! I spent twenty-five years in Arizona and for the last ten have been living in Georgia. This year I’ve spent more time in my home state than any other year sice I moved, and it alternatively makes me so happy and tortures my soul (every time I have to leave). I know exactly what you mean.
OOH….girl….let me tell you. Arizona in February is one of the most magical places on the planet. We’ll be there (hopefully) for a full month in the Airstream this February. I can’t wait to explore… 🙂
this is happi-ness…:)
True enough! 🙂
I identify. I love Idaho and dream about it daily. Oh I miss it so! I see glimpses of my old stomping grounds when I visit your blog. Thank you!
Lady,
I’ll do my very best to photograph all the corners of this state for the TWO of us. I’m glad to take your heart and soul home, as often as I can.
XX
I understand your words and sentiment. I grew up in Missouri. Traveled and lived in the mountain of the West and yet chose to come home and create a life in a place where the mountains are so old that they don’t stand nearly as tall or look as glamorous as the places I have traveled and tried to make a home. I am always amazed by my sense of belonging to the old barns, open pastures and understated beauty of this place.
Ahhhhhhhh….roots are a beautiful thing!
it is good to be filled up with your patch of land, to revel in it daily. i like to explore but feel truly a part of this wild wet coast, more and more every day. the salt water runs through my veins and the wild winter winds swirl through my hair. i sway like the fir trees, and creep through the woods in the path of furred beasts and birds. glad you are filling your soul in the wild outside.
You beauty! I know just what you mean by ALL of this….going animal…I mean. 🙂 X
Jillian, this piece is so powerful to me, I had to repost it and link back to you. I hope this is okay. I rarely meet people who feel (and speak) this way about land. The land is (beside my children) what I live for. Does that make sense?
Kerry
What you speak of so few get the chance to comprehend. I had this when I lived in Oregon….the woods, the ocean, the streams….my heart has longed for these things ever since the day I moved away. Now in Central CA, I’m struggling to find my peace of mind. Between the rat race of the valley, and the “hippies” on the coast who are trying soooo hard to be like each other, I feel lost like never before. I will be back to the soggy forest soon with my baby girl, and she will know what you speak of!