I woke early this morning delighted with life. Even after dealing with a day's worth of email spam, I feel easy and light. I decided yesterday morning to participate in the Rosen movement intensive and I am enjoying it. I continue to get movement back I lost last year and perhaps uncover places I never knew I had. I bought some new music yesterday and am enjoying that. My book group met and enjoyed a wonderful evening together. The stars were out and the air as sweet as could be. Spring seems to be here. I read that education keeps us young, that we should all continue taking classes. Okay!! Though I haven't been out in the forest these last few days, I do feel a wonderful steady movement like a mantra, and I am rocking back and forth and circling in happiness and ease. ...Steady movement is much like a mantra chanted over and over. Steady movement reduces inner confusion, and chaos the same that white noise drowns out the invasive, distracting sounds of daily life. I immerse myself in the Eternal Present as I walk, reeling in the absolute immediacy of a trail twisting and turning through the trees. The forest opens to me. Around every bend, a new world awaits – a glimpse of some wild creature darting across the land, a beaver pond appearing unexpectedly, a rare flower blooming. There is no end to it. I savor these small, elemental surprises as the abstract concerns of a more complicated way of life gradually fade away. I become a part of the forest – a woods wanderer, a seeker of wild things, a chaser of butterflies. And the gap between self and other narrows... Walt McLaughlin, excerpted from Forest Under My Fingernails