Harnessing Energy From Nature

A quick pic of how I feel after a long drive to a beautiful place, now I’m in my 70s.

My wife and I are just back home after a terrific week “harnessing energy from nature,” as we hiked the beautiful Hocking Hills in Southern Ohio, USA.

We based ourselves in a small historic town called Logan, and from there we travelled out each day walking a different route, enjoying the nature, and keeping fit at the same time.

A good time of the year with most children back at school, the routes through the weekdays were very quiet…sometimes we were the only ones there.

We’re both great believers in energy, whether that comes from people, trees and plants or even the earth, yes…I can even be seen hugging trees!

To be able to take energy from other sources and gain that energy for yourself isn’t just charging the batteries, it’s a feeling of reward, especially knowing that it’s not to the detriment of that source.

With that said, the small town of Logan has its very own natural energy source.

The ancient oak of Logan.

Unknown even by many of Logan’s residents, this giant white oak tree is over 600 years old.

My wife and I came across it after a day’s hiking, simply by driving around Logan’s lovely old houses and spotting it at the edge of an old cemetery, sitting on a hillside.

We parked up opposite and climbed the hill to the base of the tree. Around the tree, there are Civil War graves, and older graves of people who died in the 1700s…pioneers…before the town (which is actually classed as a city here in America, despite having a population of less than 10.000) of Logan even existed.

I had jarred my lower back by jumping off a rock on our hike. Looking up at the mighty oak, as old as it is, the strength and energy is apparent. It’s in great form, extremely healthy for it’s age, and looks as if it will go on for another 600 years.

Given that, my wife suggested that I rub my lower back on the rough bark and stretch out and up at the same time.

OK, after a look around to see that no one’s watching (and laughing), off I went into the stretch against the giant oak.

There is no doubt, the energy was there! The stretching on the bark felt good, no doubt that helped, but the energy was there.

We walked around to look at the mainly unkept gravestones. Some were so weather-beaten that they were completely unreadable. I even picked a couple up and stood them back in place. But those older ones that were readable, from before the Civil War, had names from Scotland and Ireland, including a young laddie with the great name of William Wallace. I rubbed off the lichen and moss to ensure that his name remained clear for some time into the future.

Walking back to the car with my wife, my lower back no longer hurt, it was relaxed and back to normal. The stretching or the energy…or both? I believe probably both, because that’s just it…it’s what we believe that counts, and it’s what we believe that works.

The great ancient white oak of Logan, with the Civil War graves and those older and younger ones, makes for an awesome picture on the hillside.

The next morning, with no ill effects to the lower back injury, off we went on another route to hike.

The amazing places where trees and plants can flourish.

We set off early from Logan, a fresh morning’s air breezed its way through the trees and rock structures of Hocking Hills’ amazing landscapes.

The conversation between my wife and I was all about the great white oak of Logan, how few people know about it, how fewer even appreciate its energy, and what about these trees in the State Park, growing on bare rock surfaces, holding on for dear life as they grow taller, wider, and heavier?

The phone was ever ready in camera mode. Just for the right sunlight to push through the tree tops’ canopy and down to the ground. I was looking for rock structures with trees growing on edges where they just shouldn’t be. How do they maintain their strength? Just look at these roots, not underground but clinging onto the rock for dear life.

The more I walked, the more these trees took on the character of real people…old, strong, tough, proud people, full of energy.

My wife, the size of a small insect, takes in the view of the magnificent rock structures, where the trees still manage to upstage them by growing over and forming their own canopy.

Nature’s green carpet folds down to a dried river bed, and the sun’s rays push through the trees against the rock structure, forming a beautiful moment in time.

Just mesmerized by the beauty of the natural world, not even a world away from where we live.

More trees stand strong in places where they almost defy nature.

Even in my 70s, every day is still a school day. I could walk the same walk a hundred times, and still not take everything in.

As the week went on, it seemed that there were more and more people walking the routes. Some very noisy, some dropping rubbish, some taking no interest whatsoever in nature, apart from using the walk as exercise. Yet many, like ourselves, were seeing whatever it was that nature threw out to them.

The amazing thing for me personally, was that no matter how many individuals were on the trail (and at one point I remarked to my wife that it reminded me of the photos of the trail of climbers backed upfor hundreds of yards, leading up to the top of Everest), no matter the discarded soda cans and other rubbish seen on the ground, or in the creek, no matter the human noises breaking through the natural noise…I was still able to harness the energy from nature and, therefore, use it positively to continue improving my life from great to greater.