~Good little girls, never get lost, out in the woods
Good little girls stay in their own yard…~
Of all the Alaska ports (granted there are many I haven’t been to) Sitka remains my favourite. I have a routine in Sitka. I go to the same coffee shop every week, I order the same thing – I sit and write back and forth to home for a few hours, update my journals, upload my photographs. Then I go to the park.
Sitka’s National Historic Park isn’t a “park” as a lot of people will think of it. No fields, no playgrounds, no soccer nets. Sitka National Park is a forest, a real forest that kisses the shoreline of the ocean and has a freshwater salmon-bearing river cutting right through the middle of it. It’s popular with excursions and tours, but if you can master the trick of getting ahead of the large groups, it’s one of the most peaceful spots on the entire route.
Especially on days like today, when for reasons unknown to any of us – a lot of guests chose not to get off the ship, when the town was quiet and the only sound as you walked through the forest was the sound of your own feet crunching on the gravel of the path. You could hear everything, if you listen hard enough you c ould even here the hiss of the ocean over the burble of the river. As usual, it had just rained – though for a change it wasn’t raining while we were there – so the forest smelled salty and fresh and alive. Off to either side of the path you could hear different the birds calling to each other, and if you stood very very still, a pair of squirrels would skitter up the tree next to you and look at you as if they were wondering what you were doing in their house.
I could spend hours in the forest, it’s easy to lose track of how big an area it covers. Normally I cut through the middle and take the bridge over the river. On my last Alaska run I rarely had time to actually venture into the forest itself – but we’re in Sitka for a touch longer this trip, and my schedule is just that little bit different, so I can explore just that tiny bit more.
And I needed today. I needed the breath of salt-touched air and the rustle of the trees, I needed the zen-time. For multiple reasons, work has been a crazy ride for me this week , and being able to take myself away from it every once in a while eases the pressure behind my eyes and lifts my heart just that little bit. So that when I go back to sitting behind my desk, my shoulders rest easy, and my smile is legitimate.
Sometimes I think we all could do with getting lost in the woods once in a while.