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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Into the Woods

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“The way is clear, the light is good, I have no fear, nor no one should.
The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood.
No need to be afraid there– there’s something in the glade there…
Into the woods without delay, but careful not to lose the way.
Into the woods, who knows what may be lurking on the journey?
Into the woods to get the thing that makes it worth the journeying.
Into the woods–” Stephen Sondheim

I was at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last weekend and saw a production of “Into the Woods” at the Elizabethan theater. How perfect that this is the Lens-Artists challenge theme this week! Thanks, Egidio!

My neck of the woods includes a great number of Douglas Fir trees and a carpet of Solomon’s Seal, ferns, and wood sorrel. Lichen and moss cover the branches of oaks. This is the temperate rain forest.

For much of the year, you could literally bathe in the forest. Walking through clouds is not unheard of, either.

My weekly Monday walks give me the benefits of forest oxygen and sanity, cardio exercise and socialization.

Sleeping In The Forest

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

– Mary Oliver

I wish you all time and place and space to vanish into something better. May the trees shelter and breathe you once again.

15 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Into the Woods”

  1. Priscilla, what an amazing post. The photos and quotes are perfect. You think it was a coincidence you saw “Into the Woods” last weekend. Let me add to that. I resisted using that song quote in my post, but the truth is the musical was constant in my mind. Music always finds its way into my photography. This was a fantastic post from start to finish. And that includes your very last sentence. Perfect!

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    • Thanks, Egidio – I worked for a children’s theater company and taught classes around that musical; it is often on my mind! I loved that I got to take my grown up children to the show. Children will listen! 🙂

      Reply

  2. Priscilla, Your forest images are stunning! My favorite is the last image of the hikers walking into the clouds. I love that you included the quote the show “Into the Woods”.

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  3. Priscilla, your collection is so well punctuated with quotes that fit nicely with the images. My favorite shots are the ones with people beginning their walk into the woods.

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