Finding My Way: Guidance From the Forest

Have you ever felt that life is so loud you can sometimes feel lost? Today's poem explores your need for peace and direction, and offers encouragement to wander into wild places for as long as you need — to find your own way.

Today’s episode invites you to: 

- Discover the calm found in forest walks

- Allow yourself to convene with nature

- Consider that you are carving your own path

You’ll also be given a word, inspired by the poem, to ponder as your week unfolds.

Lia Girard is a poet, writer, author, wife, and mom whose feature articles are found on iBelieve.com, Crosswalk.com, and other inspirational platforms. 

You can explore her poetry, often inspired by the wonders of nature, on Instagram: @wildpeace.poetry. 

If you love the show, or any episode resonates with you, please rate or review the show on your favorite platform, or email your feedback to lia@wildpeacepoetry.com.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Hello, and welcome to Heart of a Wildflower. This is a space that invites you to slow down, reconnect, and find beauty even in hard seasons. I'm Lia Girard, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. In each episode of Heart of a Wildflower, we'll consider an aspect of love, longing, or life, such as heartache, healing, or hope, by reading and exploring a poem together. We'll end with a thoughtful word or phrase to contemplate as your week unfolds. Today let's explore a poem I wrote about finding your way, titled Guidance from the Forest. Guidance from the Forest In a world of confusion, where silence feels lost, come enter my haven and lay with the moss. Listen for wind song and walk through my leaves, touch all my tree trunks, and slowly breathe in a rhythm that opens a pathway through stones, and discover that here you have found your way home. Have you ever felt like this, lost in a world of confusion, overwhelmed, or over stimulated by demands, or unable to find peace because there's so much pain. Hurtful and confusing things can and will happen to you, even though life is always a very good gift. Things like rejection or infidelity or loss of a loved one can leave you feeling directionless. If you're like me and you've been in situations where you crave a sense of peace or a place to escape to where your heart feels calm and held, I hope this poem brings you reassurance. I want you to know that it's a wonderful idea to wander away from it all to go find yourself. I wrote this poem after surviving one of the darkest seasons of my life, having had to make the choice to leave behind a marriage that I poured my entire being into for 25 years. I was often in a state of shock that sent me deep into quiet, wild places. And I found that forests were my favorite caretakers. Each one of the pine-scattered, leaf-covered or flower-trimmed pathways where I prayed for answers are now woven into my soul. The moss and mushrooms that gathered near my feet spoke to me in voices that I found my heart could understand. In fact, nature is the best example we have other than our human lives to prove there are always seasons of darkness, storms of destruction, and gentle rebirth and renewal. Life is always laced with unseen potential and sometimes what feels like unspeakable pain. If you've ever gone on a walk alone, or spoken to the moon, or shared your heart to wildflowers on a rocky slope, or sat awestruck by snowfall, maybe this poem speaks to you. I wrote it to encourage you and me that all of creation is a love letter. Giving yourself time to go find them and yourself in the process is how you take part in this miraculous relationship. Please believe me, practicing connection with the natural world that quietly sustains you is worth your time. In this poem, you see and touch both the fragile and the majestic parts of the forest. Just like you, its overall composition is concurrently tender and strong. Also, like you, it's made of many interdependent parts, some buried deep beneath the surface, some resting low and others highly visible. Perhaps the notion of opening a pathway through stones can gently inspire you that hard things are worked through one small step at a time. Or maybe the poem can encourage you to go somewhere just to feel the wind wrap around you, like a blanket or a song. Consider this if any word or phrase in this short poem lingered in your soul, even if only for a breath of time, it may belong to you right now. Does silence feel hard to find? Do you wonder if there's a haven of calm anywhere? Or how you can love and trust your own heart to be that haven? Or are you trying to find a rhythm that feels livable? All of the very ordinary words in this poem, lost, walk, stones, home, rhythm, are here to help you search for something extraordinary. Whether or not any part of this poem feels like it's made for you, I hope that you will make a date with yourself soon to walk a forest path. Notice how you feel. Search for something that delights you. Give your hurts and hopes to the creator of all this wilderness and ask for inspiration or direction. When I was lost for several years, talking with God in the forest was how I found my strength again. It helped me walk my way out of fears that I no longer needed to feel. What I'd like to leave you with is a word from the poem to ponder, and that word is breathe. What would it mean to you to pay attention to your breath today? Even if you simply close your eyes and take a series of deep breaths until you feel that you've exhaled any tension you've been holding tightly. As you inhale, visualize your favorite place in nature. And as you exhale, let your worries dissolve away. Let this breathing bring your soul peace. Thank you for spending this time with me today. I hope it offered you room to reflect and reconnect with yourself. If this episode spoke to you, please share it with a friend or drop me an email at lia@wildpeacepoetry.com. You can also find my poetry and message me on Instagram: @wildpeace.poetry. Until next time, keep blooming in your own wild and wonderful way.