Walking the Forest Floor

So a friend of mine gave me a little assignment with detailed instruction on what I was to write about.  She likewise presented me with a paper the I have not yet looked at which supposedly will tell me my views on life and love.  I have not yet looked at that paper, and instead am going to write my description of my walk through the forest as instructed.  Here goes...

It was a cold and foggy spring morning when I decided to take a walk through the dense forest that bordered my family property.  It was the forest I had grown up playing tirelessly in and around.  The leaves of the forest floor were still wet with the morning dew and therefore the leaves did not crunch beneath my feet.  I could see the first signs of Spring in the budding branches, and the sound of the whippoorwill echoed methodically.

I came upon a path.  The path was narrow and worn.  It was clearly the trail used by the deer that inhabited the forest.  Perhaps other small creatures used the muddy trail, but it was clearly too small for larger wildlife that lived in and around the area.  I chose to follow it that morning, to see where it would lead.

In my travels, I came upon many items, the first of which a key.  The key was silver and tarnished with the weather.  It had many scrapes and scratches.  What was it doing here I wondered?  What could this key possibly be used for?  I placed the key in my pocket and traveled onward, not knowing where it was I would end.

Shortly after discoving the key, I came upon a tin cup.  The tin cup was white, though the white paint had weathered in many places.  It was small and dented, and I wondered if the cup was that of a child.  The cup intrigued me, perhaps more than the key, for my child had such a cup she drank from

when she was small.  Could this be the same cup?  I had not seen it for years, and the memory of her

drinking from it made me want to take it back with me to my home.  I held tightly to the cup, and continued down the path, wondering what else waited around the turn ahead.

Soon I found myself staring at several large trees impeding my travel.  It is was odd to me, that not one, but several trees had managed to land after falling in the same location.  It was clear that the trees had not been placed there by human means, rather they had blown over likely in a storm.  Moss was beginning to cover the trees, making them nearly impassible.  I stopped briefly to assess whether I wanted to go around the obstacle or go through it.  With very little thought, I decided through it I would go.  I managed to slip through the obstruction with a few cuts to my bare legs.  This reminded me of my childhood days playing in the woods for hours on end with my brother and sister.  "If we had been lucky enough to find trees such as this when we were children, we would have had the best fort", I thought to myself.

It wasn't long before I heard the trickle of a stream.  Oh, yes!  I knew that stream.  I had played there, caught minnows there, and once, when approaching my teens, my best friend and I had come upon the stream.  As we removed our shoes to get in to cool off we both screamed at the sight of a snake as it swam away from us.  The stream was flowing fast and cold this morning, and though I was tempted to taste the water, I was educated enough to know that wasn't a good idea.  I bent low and let the cold water trickle over my fingers and then I recalled the items from my collection.  I quickly washed the cup and the key off in the fresh spring water.  The water was so very cold, but I so desired to see my items clean, that I scrubbed them as hard as I could.  Though they still did not look new, they did look better.  I returned the key to my pocket and held tight to my tin cup.

"Wait a minute", I thought.  "This place, so familiar".  I knew that I had been in this exact, or near exact location as a child.  I turned to continue on the path, and there it was.  The remaining logs from the fort my brother and I had managed to build so many years before.  The little shelter was barely standing, and I imagined that the forest animals had rather enjoyed the shack over the years.  We always had visions, he and I, of building an entire village of forts such as this.  Sprinkled throughout the wooded shelter were several nuts from the ground squirrels in the area.  The roof of the shelter had blown inside and it was not fit to serve as a human shelter of any sort.  I could never imagine spending the night inside the place, though as a child I often wanted to do so.

The sun was beginning to shine more prevalently through the trees by now and though I thought of heading back home I wanted to travel just a bit further.  In doing so, I came upon a fence made of rock and wood.  It was well put together surprisingly, and I wondered who had taken the time to build such a unique structure in the middle of the forest.  On the other side of the fence was a field full of 
daisies.  The dew had nearly dissipated, and it occurred to me that it was someone's property likely used for livestock.  The daisies were so beautiful, so plentiful, I jumped the fence to pick some to take home with me.

It was time to head for home, and I couldn't wait to get home to share my treasures.  The trip back was not nearly as exciting as the trip down memory lane, but I am glad I took the path I took to get where I ended up.