Nature’s Peace

Apr 28

Frost on Fallen Leaves by Rachael Dellamuth

I hate feeling like I am just non-stop going all the time. I hate feeling stressed and unsafe.

When I was young, I found myself going to find trees to comfort myself. When we moved, I picked the room that had a beautiful Maple tree outside the window, and any time I felt the stress of life I would go sit with this tree and I found that my inner peace was super connected with nature. In such a huge way.

I spent a lot of my time sitting under a tree and just soaking in how the leaves blew in the wind. The gentle wisps of air shifted the leaves in such a musical way.

When I got a little older I started waking up at dawn so I could watch the sunrise. I guess I was about 10 and I would set my alarm for 05:00 so I wouldn’t miss anything. In the summer this was the perfect time but in winter time I had to wait a couple of hours and you know what? It was always worth the wait. My days were so much better when I got to watch it rise.

It wasn’t until I was 15 that I was considered old enough to stay up and watch the sunsets out side of summer time.

That brought a whole new peace to my life.

I would sit and just soak it up.
My favorite time to daydream was staring at a blue sky with poofy magical clouds.

I found nature was just calling to me and I could not wait to experience more of it.

When I finally turned 18 you couldn’t keep me out of nature. If there was a lake or a patch of trees I was exploring it. Oh, the amazing places I found! Now at the time my camera consisted of a disposable film camera and I only got those on special occasions. My cell phone didn’t have the camera that it has now. Honestly, that is a good thing. Nature spent a good amount of time alone with me, simply helping me heal and enjoy my life.

Did I wish I could share the things I was seeing? Absolutely! This is why I am so glad that I have the ability to share with you some of the gorgeous peaceful things I have experienced in the last few years. My website is full of little pieces of peace that I have saved over the years. I hope you take a moment to enjoy those as well as the pieces I have put together here.

Sometimes all it takes to find a little peace in your day is to look up at the sky.

Feel the beauty all around you.

When I got married I found very little time for nature. My husband didn’t like going out and doing things and when I could talk him into a hike he was more of a ‘let’s see how fast we can walk this’ kinda hiker. Going out alone wasn’t an option in the situation I was in though I did manage to run away and find some nature a few times over the years. One year I even grew a little garden!

In 2019 I separated from my husband and so every other weekend he had my 5 kids and I thought I was going to die. It was awful. I was so stressed. I turned to what a lot of people do …. the bar became my friend on those nights. Until one night I was leaving the bar because I knew I wasn’t getting what I needed from it and as I was driving in the dark, I found myself driving down a road canopied by trees, in that moment, I felt a peace that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Later that same night I connected with a friend and we spent the rest of the night walking in nature. Sitting with the Fireflies. Peace. I had finally found what had been missing for so long.

Now as you can see my wonderful little phone camera is not quite what is needed to see the detail in the moon but it is absolutely enough to see the rainbow in the ring around it and to paint the picture of such a peaceful night

I am by no means a professional photographer but I have always loved taking pictures, especially of nature.

Pretty soon I was introducing my children to nature. We went on a hike to see a local waterfall. While we were there, we had lunch and sat in the woods leaned up against some trees and each of us picked a part of nature to draw. It was so peaceful and that was when I believe their healing journey began. I saw such a huge change in them and now when they are feeling stressed, they go find some nature.

The sound of the waterfall was so loud. We could barely hear each other. It really let us experience peace for ourselves.

To this day my kids sleep with white noise, and we have three that we switch between but two of those are the sound of water in one form or another.

After learning to take in the big picture, I found myself learning to find peace in the smallest pieces of nature. A little flower poking through the cement as I walked down the sidewalk. A random acorn on the windshield of my car.

A clump of small mushrooms in the grass as I walk by.

The more time I spent in nature, even in my own tiny (and I mean tiny…. my backyard was not even big enough for a small swing set for my 5 kids. Though it did fit a tiny trampoline) backyard, the more I saw nature and felt the peace it brings with it.

It got to the point where I could even find nature at work. At one point in my adult life, I picked up a second job and worked part-time at McD’s, I was an opener. When I would come in I would get to see the sunrise and the morning fog roll over the field beside it. I also was always finding the most beautiful moths.