Forest Bath
Forest Bath collage made by Emily
by Emily Horowitz
My Soul Walk Reflections If They Were a Dance
[I am spotlit, wearing street clothes, barefoot on a bare stage—wood floor of course!]
I walk slowly forward, gently but intentionally, toe to heel, toe to heel. I walk into the invisible ‘otherworld’ of the forest, slowly turning my head left to right, my steps slowly becoming more graceful, ‘dropping in’, kissing the earth with my feet, exaggerating the movement of my legs a bit, knees rising, present and presenting. Still slowly looking around with differing tilts of my head, left right, above, below. I am smiling.
Lowering myself to my knees, I cup a hand to my ear, listening to the sounds of a creek, which I suggest with my extended other arm gesturing the flow of water. And then my body picks up the momentum of my arm and I am dancing the stream; my ear still cupped, I am listening to the stream and I AM the stream, listening and being. I wiggle those fingers for the shimmer, the sparkle of sunlight on the water.
I rise up and walk on, becoming more embodied, more enlivened; I put my whole body into this walking, this dance of walking, stepping with buoyancy and then swirling, taking everything in, all the invisible forms and color, all the life, pulling it to me, gathering it in with my hands, my arms, and then sending it back out, pulling it towards and sending it back out, a dance of reciprocity, of gratitude, of connection, of joy.
I dance the breeze against my skin and through my hair. Feeling the breeze and being the breeze. I dance the sun filtering down through the trees, the hide-and-seek of it, the being found by it, the shine of it that makes me shine and dance that shining.
As these movements eventually slow, I stand in stillness, like a tree, like all the invisible trees, rooted like home. Like I am home. Slowly I float my arms up overhead, palms touching, and then down, and again, over my head, palm to palm, and down, a nod to our mindful movement flow. Then I float my hand to my heart and offer it out to you all. Thank you.
Forest Bath is the Soul Walk Project created by Emily Horowitz, FTS Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Seven Springs 2024 cohort.