Time Well Spent Part 7
February 7, 2026
Time Well Spent Part 7
What if the secret to feeling truly at home isn’t found in spending time in activity, but beneath an open sky, lying on a fallen tree, breathing in sync with an ancient forest?
Earth pulses with life, not just in beings with cells like humans, trees, moss, fish, and land animals, but in the energy coursing through rocks and soil. Yet most of us live disconnected from the raw vitality of nature’s untouched forests, wild rivers, pristine lakes, and ancient rock formations.
We are made of living cells, just like every other living thing around us. Yet we are slaves to our patterns that frequently keep us away from the family of nature. But when we stand in the woods among trees, walk beaches where seagulls cry, or climb mountains where animals roam, we rejoin our cellular family. We become one with the living world that shares our fundamental nature.
St. Francis of Assisi understood this kinship deeply. In his “Canticles” (1224-1225), he called the Sun “Brother Sun” and the Moon “Sister Moon,” extending this familial language to Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. These are all siblings to humanity, all reflections of God’s glory. Francis embraced rabbits, birds, wolves, fish, bees, and even worms as brothers and sisters, recognizing no separation between human and creature.
Andrea Sarubbi Fereshteh carries forward St. Francis’s vision in her book In the Company of Trees: Honoring Our Connection to the Sacred Power, Beauty, and Wisdom of Trees, (2018). After moving from the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, to central New Jersey as a young mother, Andrea yearned for the nature she’d left behind. The trails leading back to her neighborhood called to her, beginning a journey into oneness with trees and into the contemplative practice of forest bathing.
Time well spent is time in nature, a sacred time that reinforces our connection to the living family around us. I experienced this truth during a forest bathing session in Colorado. Our party of four friends separated into different corners of a vast forest. I found a giant fallen tree and lay along its horizontal trunk, my forest bed. For a long time, I felt my body blend into the wood, my skin caressed by the forest’s breath. I became one with birdsong and the fragrance of wilderness. My eyes merged with the sky above. When it was time to leave, I didn’t want to go. I had found my way home.
My life is spent mostly indoors. But when I have the opportunity and the conscious awareness, I spend time with my brothers and sisters and blend in with them again.
Spiritual practice: Describe a spiritual practice of yours that includes the natural world. How is that practice related to your spiritual formation?
Self-inquiry: Name some reasons how forest bathing might improve your life.
Prayer:
Dear God, I can feel the soft wood in my back right now as I remember the tree that was my bed in the forest. Why does being in the forest feel like home? Perhaps in our primal memory, we remember when the forest was our home. I pray constantly to make time to go home again. Amen
