Creekside, on the way up the trail to the High Divide in Washington’s Olympic National Park, are the tiny yellow Arnica, and in addition to their happy ‘sunflower look’ they have a long history of use by Native Americans given the flower’s medicinal healing properties to treat inflammation.
Higher up, above the mystical and magical Heart Lake, its heart shape perched on the very edge of the Sol Duc Valley, are alpine fields of lupine bouquets.
Higher still, and with delicate artistry, from the divine painter’s palette, fine, careful brushstrokes have created on visual canvas the magnetic attractiveness of the magenta Indian Paintbrush.
And on the horizon, now with a broad, bold sweeping brush, is the magnificent, mesmerizing majesty of Mount Olympus and the mighty Olympic mountain range.
It is no wonder the Apache Blessing reads, “May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.”
Beautifully written as always! For me it was a special day and reading your story reminder me of some healing hikes of my own.
Today 29 July 2024 is the birthday of my first boyfriend who was deported from the Netherlands. We lost contact for safety as he came from a country where freedom of speech is not invented yet. We would pray for a different better world and planned to find each others families the year we d turn 40.I imagined him with a wife, six children perhaps? I could not wait to introduce him to my husband and three kids Seven years ago, the year we both turned 40 I kept my promise and started looking for him. I found him, (after many hilarious trails over the internet) but I found him safely in the arms of God already. Cancer took him at the age of 27. No wife, no children. The first year I spent being upset and angry over so much unlived life. He was the kindest person ever so why not grant him the joys of his own family? . Now I understand his journey was about something else. He passed to the other side in a country where freedom of speech is a given. I visited his mom and dad and learned a different language to be able to talk to them. And together we learned to say his name again in joy and peace. It gave us air to breathe again and his parents and I we walked and walked and smiled. We sat under mesmerizing canopies, we followed trails and admired wide views and felt our hearts open again. Yesterday was his birthday. And he is Free forever.