This is my Father’s world

Nature healed me when I most needed it. When human invention failed me, I sought out nature for succour and peace. It’s a very strange relationship. During my darkest period, I ventured into the forest for comfort and rest. I felt the forest calling me and entered into a liminal space with the forest. Once I stepped into the liminal space with the forest, I found myself going back there again and again. Back then, I didn’t know anything about forest bathing or forest therapy. I only new that the forest was doing something in me which I had no way to explain it. Let me share with you some of the reasons or things that the forest was doing in me that made me kept going back to it back then.

1. The forest provided a space of security

Walking into the forest made me feel at home with it. I didn’t feel that I was in an unfamiliar place. I felt that knew this place and the place knew me. I felt that I was part of the ecosystem of the forest and walking into it was simply coming back “home” to it.

2. The forest felt safe

It was safe being in the forest. The forest didn’t judge me for what I was at my lowest. The forest didn’t try to analyse my situation. The forest didn’t try to label me. It just took me as I was and it felt safe being in such an environment.

3. The forest was slow and not rushing

The forest was not rushing. I walked with the forest at my own pace and it walked with me at my pace. The taller trees in the forest walked with me and looked down at me all the time to make sure they were in pacing with me. The covered me from the blazing heat and provided shelter when it rained. But still, no rushing…slowly and gently.

4. The forest was quiet

The forest didn’t speak a word. It didn’t have to at all. It didn’t try to console or say nice things to me. The trees were simply walking with me and it was just walking.

5. The forest sometimes surprised me

Although the forest didn’t speak a word, it sometimes surprised me by showing me details in the forest. The army of ants moving among trees, the birds chirping and singing into the forest, the squirrels mating and continuing their lifeline in this ecosystem or even a little snake passing through the woods. They surprised me and brought a tinge of joy as I walked with the forest.

6. The forest connects

The forest not only walked with me, it also connects me with the many other things in the more_than_human_world. Being able to feel the heartbeats of the life forms in the forest made me feel being part of this whole universe and the universe is much larger than the things that I was going through back then.

7. The forest sent me out

The forest didn’t keep me in the liminal space forever. The forest sent me out to face the human world stronger. You walked out of the liminal space with renewed strength and courage to face the world. The forest doesn’t take away your problems …but it gives you more strength to deal with them.

We need the forest more than they need us. We need their protection more than us protecting them. Of course, it’s important for us to develop that relationship with the forest … that connection with each other and to support one another. The forest is part of us and we are part of the forest.

Let’s go to the forest. Take time to be with the forest or a park if you live in urban city.

This is my Father’s World….and He has created a Garden for us ….not a concrete slab…but a space with nature.

Ronneth

1 May 2026