Driving to a meeting one morning, I flipped to NPR and heard someone say, "You knew who you were when you were nine years old."  I wish I knew who to credit, but I didn't hear the name of the speaker.

 

This idea captured my imagination.  When I got home later that night, I looked through photos and found the only one I had of me at that age.  I was amazed!

 

There I am in the woods in my boots and backpack, standing on a stump and leaning against a tree. I am grinning as if to say, "I can't imagine a better place to be!"

 

Thirty years later, I still feel that way when I'm in the woods with my boots laced up and backpack on.

 

There was a time in my life when I was adrift, questioning who I was and what I was meant to do.  It's no coincidence that during those years, I hardly went to the woods at all.  I lost sight of who I was, and I stopped doing what made me, well, me! 

 

I soon reached a point where I felt I had lost everything.  I'd given up my job and home, lost the man who I thought was the love of my life, and couldn't see anything in my future but a wall of mist.  I decided to head for the mountains.

 

I spent an entire June learning to live with what I could carry on my back, keeping company with the stars and streams, snowfields and wildflowers.  One of my instructors said, "Who you are out here is who you really are."  And you know what? I liked who I was again.

 

Finding the photo of my nine-year-old self was like having all that I learned in the mountains reaffirmed.  Now, when I lose my way or myself, I know that all I need to do is put on my boots and head to the woods.  No, not all of my complex problems get solved just by leaning against a tree, but being grounded in my true self does make the solutions just a little easier to see.  I am thankful for the forest and the trees.

 

~  ~  ~

 

Who were you when you were nine? 

 

What wisdom did you carry in your soul?

 

What small step can you take to bring that wisdom into your life now?

 

Find a photo if you can, or recall a memory, and see what the wise child in you still knows.