Do you own a woodland or …… does it own you? A few months ago when I bought my wood, I wrote “I am now the proud owner of a small woodland.” I’d like to revise that statement. I’ve come to realise that it’s the other way around. Sure, I own the piece of land that it sits on but I don’t own the wood. The creatures, plants and animals that live in and off the wood are the true owners – it is their home and supports their lives. I am just a visitor, a guest.

I’ve realised that the wood is an entity in its own right and not just the sum of its many components and I’ve fallen head over heels in love with it. I can’t wait to see it the next time. It occupies my mind every single day, many times over. The wood doesn’t care if I exist or not. It will carry on without my presence.

There’s a certain feeling comes over me when I enter it. I felt it the first few times I visited. At first it was just a feeling of peace and tranquillity mixed with an excitement of “owning” a wood. That feeling has grown and evolved into something much deeper. Now I feel a sense of awe when I look up at those trees and listen to the birds and look at the plants and insects and myriad lives that occupy it. I can liken it to entering a cathedral. You are struck by the beauty of what’s around you and the scale of a force so much more powerful than yourself and you are the guest and it deserves your respect and appreciation for being what it is. It bathes you in a cloak of calm and peacefulness.

It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it but I feel drawn in and want to merge with it. For the time I am there, I want to be a part of it and not just a visitor. When I step in, I become a woodland creature, an inhabitant, an integral component of that entity called a woodland. So I do what I can do, play my part and work hard to improve and beautify it even more and for that time, I feel a true part of it. My sense of being “me” gets pushed out of my mind and seems to disappear. It’s a fantastic feeling, being at one with nature. I have to tear myself away at the end of the day. We have somehow separated ourselves from nature for the sake of comfort and convenience but it’s good to remember that we too are part of it. Next time you decide to take a walk through a wood, find a nice quite spot away from the public and dog walkers. Stop, sit, observe, listen and make no judgement. Just be there in it and let it wash over you. If you’re lucky, you will feel that connection with nature again.