Do you have a place? A place that makes you feel completely and totally at peace with the world?
Does such a place even exist? Well there was once a girl, and she had such a place.
She lived in a beautiful, natural wilderness surrounded by creeks and oceans,
and right next to her house there was an ancient baobab forest, filled with the largest,
fattest trees in the entire world, some of them hundreds of years old. And every single day,
the girl would take just a few moments. She would wander off into this forest and there she would
look around her and see the vines tumbling down. She would nestle herself into those twisted,
crooked, gnarled roots and if she was feeling brave she might clamber up to the topmost
branches and look around her foresty kingdom. And every time she found herself in the forest [ahhh]
a great peace and calm would overcome her. She loved this forest. But one day, her parents
came to her and said “daughter, we have some exciting news. We are moving. We’re going to
travel across oceans and continents and come to a brand new land and we will build a whole new life.
Oh, this is wonderful news!” And the girl knew that her parents wanted her to be happy – they
wanted her to be excited. But in truth, she was worried. She was worried about her forest.
Who was going to take care of it? Who was going to love those trees in the same way that she did?
Would she ever find anywhere as magical, as beautiful as this forest around her?
She was not so sure. But, the day of the move arrived and [fingers clicking]
she found herself in a beautiful land – Scotland. She had heard stories of this place,
incredible creatures like the selkies, and the kelpies, the tiny wee faeries who lived
in little nooks and crannies. She looked around her new world and she saw the rolling hills,
she saw magnificent lochs and the forests, she saw ancient cities, cathedrals and castles with their
spires and turrets that reached up into the sky. And she thought ‘wow’! She quickly made friends.
But there was still something that was different – the sounds, the colours.
She was unfamiliar with the rhythm of the seasons. She didn’t understand the sound of the forest or
the language of the birds. And so she missed her old forest. But as the time began to pass,
she found herself underneath the branches of an ancient yew. And as she sat there,
she felt the wind carry across her face. And the wind crosses oceans and continents, has no roots,
and the wind recognised her and spoke to her. And said ‘if you stay here a little longer,
you will become used to the rhythm of the seasons. And if you sit still, you will begin to recognise
the leaves of the trees and the language of the birds. And then the wind moved on.
The girl listened to what the wind had said and as she began to look around, she saw with new,
fresh eyes. She looked at the bark of the trees, she looked at the shape of the leaves, she began
to truly listen to the sound of the birds. And she remembered her old forest and she thought
“even though this forest is new and different, it is still no less beautiful than my old forest”.
And as she breathed in [ahhh], she felt the peace overcome her. And she knew wherever she went,
as long as she listened and took care of the forest and loved it, she would always find home.