Although I am no stranger to Guilford College, I was a stranger to the Guilford College woods before claiming it my “place” for my class. I’m a fan of nature, I love the beauty of the trees and the wilderness of it all. However, I rarely participate in interacting with nature. When I was young, as stated in a previous blog post of mine, my health condition(s) seperated me from nature. As I am getting older and more stable with my health, I am choosing to attempt to connect with nature. What is a better place to start than the Guilford Woods?
As I was walking through the woods, I stumbled across the beginning of the woods. Although perhaps other people would choose to dive deeper into the woods, I wanted to look at the place that may be often overlooked. Since I haven’t myself got deep in my relationship with nature, I wanna ease myself into this process. I see the trees upon first glance; some of the trees are tall while others are short. I see branches on the ground that are perhaps down due to the weather. I see that the constant rain storms we have been having had an effect on my look of the place. Although this may not be a positive side effect of the rain, I could see there was a positive effect with how the grass looked and other greens. The nature in this area appeared more alive then previous months. With the recent month being March, and spring time approaching, I could see my place was alive. I felt a positive correlation for myself with this. While the area around me felt more alive, I began to feel more alive in this moment. I took a few moments to walk and just sit down in the grass. I was afraid of getting my clothes dirty at first, but then I began to question if I actually cared or not. I noticed a green sign that was labeled Guilford College Woods, that told me about the place I was entering.
Although I am focusing on this one particular area, I took note the sign told me The Guilford College Woods in full was a total of 240 acres. European American friends also settled in this area in the 1700s. I found this information fascinating because I tend not to pay attention to history. However, this reminded me this land has stood still for hundreds of years. Before I was here and born, this land was still here. I’m just another human being passing through this world and land. However, my experience will be distinct from any others; because everybodys perspective is completely different.
