Heal to Toe
by Sarah Penney
I walk into the woods.
My snowpants brushing against one another is the only sound,
save the wind.
I feel my feet on the pavement at the beginning of the trail.
The snow is falling lightly
The wind is steady
The pavement becomes pebbles and dirt
under my feet
I am concentrating on the movement
one foot in front of the other
heel to toe
heel to toe
the earth underneath me
the Earth underneath me.
I
slow
down.
I walk into the woods.
The pebbles and dirt become a carpet of leaves
under my feet
the echoing crunch of the dry and brittle top layer
the gentle compression of the wet and supple under layer
are the only sounds,
save the wind.
I am concentrating on walking deliberately
I do not notice them until I finally lift my head.
Two pairs of eyes look back at me
Two pairs of ears listening intently
to the crunch and compression of the carpet under my feet.
The does are frozen
a wet tangle of grass
nuzzled out from under the layers of leaves
hangs from one side of a mouth
waiting
mid-meal
to figure out
what I am about.
I am frozen too.
The eater is closer,
no more than 30 feet
she watches me and
slowly opens her mouth
to chew the grass.
She goes back to nuzzling for breakfast
Her sister stands guard
And I slowly sit down
on a snow-covered log.
I watch the two as one eats and the other watches me
I do not know how long we stay like this
the three of us
among the trees.
The morning is cold
the wind blows fiercely
hard snowflakes keeping their distance from one another
move across the forest floor like commuters rushing home.
A flit of movement in my peripheral vision,
another family member is coming to join the eater and her sister.
Unaware of me
she trots down the hill.
Mid-trot she freezes
as her nostrils give away her awareness
of my presence.
She skitters behind her cousins
behind a tree
tentatively peeking
a twitching ear and muzzle giving away her hiding place
until she too nuzzles the leaves for hardy grasses.
The watcher keeps watch.
And so it goes.
The watcher, her sister, her cousin,
they are joined by two
then four
each flaring their nostrils
turning their heads
twisting their ears
to me
while I sit on a log
in the woods
my snowpants quiet
the wind moving the commuting snowflakes home
the earth under me
the Earth under me.
Heal to Toe is the Soul Walk Project created by Sarah Penney, FTS Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Seven Springs 2024 cohort.