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Tuesday, October 5, 2021

A Sacred Place Via New Eyes (And Richard Powers)

Reflections From The Bell Curve: A Sacred Place

Before I began my blog over ten years ago, I'd already made three trips to Acadia National Park. Then, in 2014, after blogging for more than three years, I visited this magical place again, this time writing about my experience on Schoodic Peninsula in the post above. Returning to that sacred section of Acadia with my late-in-life soulmates from Road Scholars yesterday allowed me to re-experience that part of the park via the eyes of these fourteen people I've come to treasure. 

None of these folks have ever been to Schoodic; six of the fourteen have never been to Acadia. For me, the highlight of our day was when a park ranger led us on an experience called "forest therapy". Over the whole two hours, The Overstory would not let me go. Each time the ranger asked us to distill our thoughts down to a few words following a guided exercise she'd given us, the essence of that 2018 novel jumped into my head. The prose of Richard Powers has transformed my relationship to the natural world, trees in particular. The forest therapy exercises deepened my transformation. I'm still recovering more than a day later. 

This could well be my last trip to Acadia National Park. Almost certainly this will be my last visit to Schoodic Peninsula. If you've never visited either, I highly recommend you put both on your list. And, if you plan to try forest therapy, be sure to read The Overstory beforehand. I promise it will deepen your experience.           

Reflections From The Bell Curve: To Be Continued


2 comments:

  1. That is so beautiful on many levels: the beauty of Acadia and surroundings, the late-in-life soul mates, the forest therapy, and reminder of The Overstory. Thanks for sharing. BTW, you probably know this: Richard Powers has a new book out Bewilderment which I have purchased but not read yet.

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    1. Ines; Thanks for the comment and positive feedback. And, so happens I hadn't heard of the new Richard Powers book. I hesitate to say I'll put it on my list, given how unmanageable that list is becoming.

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