The next time you’re walking in the woods, stop walking

Volunteer guide John Fairgrieve of Hawthorn Woods leads a Bog Tour on the boardwalk Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, during WinterFest at the Volo Bog State Natural Area in Ingleside.

Hey. Come with me. Let’s take a walk.

I hope you have some time because this won’t be a watch-the-clock walk. Leave the Fitbit at home, please. We’re not going to worry about your heart rate. Work on your “personal best” another day.

Today we take a different kind of walk.

You can choose the path to follow. I bet you have favorites, but they tend to have common traits. It’s probably safe to assume the trail is surrounded by woods and even better, there’s a river or lake nearby. Heck, let’s throw in some majestic mountains off in the distance.

Lonny Cain

Nature. We love to be in the thick of it. Part of it. But are we? Really? Wait, don’t answer that yet. First let’s take that walk.

Come on, let’s step onto that well-designed path you’ve been down before. It’s been groomed for walkers like us and joggers, hikers and bike riders.

We can walk side-by-side for now but let me set the pace. No, better yet, let’s walk in step with what’s around us. We will let what surrounds us control our speed.

That means we slow down or even pause now and then. That’s the only way to really see ... and hear and even smell what surrounds us. Look into the woods around and discover motion and sound. Feel the tug that is pulling you in.

Others will be zooming by, especially those on bikes. Speed seems to be their mission. Yet everyone is there for the same reason: to spend a little time with nature.

Blending into nature is healthy, say many experts. It certainly can be calming and spiritual. But I am not sure we are doing it correctly. Or more effectively.

My instincts tell me a walk in the woods should not feel like a drive-by.

I’d prefer to follow the advice of one of my favorite nature experts, poet Mary Oliver, who penned a succinct “manual” she titled “How I Go Into the Woods.”

Alone. That’s how she prefers it. So she can become “invisible” wherever she chooses to sit ... “as motionless as an uprise of weeds, until the foxes run by unconcerned.” Where she listens to “the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.”

To do this you must step off the path and find a spot to sit and wait and listen. My manual for how to walk in the woods would be much shorter: Lesson One: Stop walking. End of lesson.

Now before Smokey Bear smacks me with a shovel, I need to stress there is a time and a place for what I am suggesting. There are good reasons why we are forced to follow clear cut paths through nature. To avoid critters, cliffs and prevent human clutter, for starters.

But damn, every now and then, we need to step off the footpath, slip into the thick of trees. Stop walking and find a spot to nest. And breathe. And wait. And listen. And watch.

Then you will see and feel exactly what you are part of. A creature of nature. A small piece of this universe. A miracle.

Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His Paperwork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail The Times, 110 W. Jefferson St., Ottawa, IL 61350.