Today’s poem is Forestbathing (or Trees) by francine j. harris. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “As we stroll slowly beneath the earth’s giants, amidst fungi, moss, lichen, and ferns, we are being workshopped in dappled light. What’s restorative isn’t merely the smells and sounds of woodlands, chirping birds and glimpses of wildlife. We are forced to confront the illusions of modern life. We are awash with a simplicity that takes us to idylls of clarity, that encourages introspection. We are reoriented toward human’s first encounter with beauty. It might be, too, that the trees, in communicating amongst themselves across distances, connect us even more to earth’s innate will toward life.”