In Conversation... with Nature

While our trusty steed had her own much-needed spa day,Tucker and I took to the woods. The auto detail place was nice enough to give us a lift—and even pick us up later—to a park I had wanted to explore for some time. Tribble Mill Park is in Lawrenceville, a town only a few block away from the town the auto detail place is in, and according to my research, had BSL. It wasn’t a full out ban, but it did deem that pit bull type  looking dogs had to wear a muzzle at all time in public.

When Qwinnett Humane Society was going to hold their annual fundraiser within Lawrenceville city limits, I contacted them about this ordinance. I was wondering if the ordinance was not applicable for that event, or if maybe it had been revoked and I just couldn’t find it.

No explanation was given, but I was told told that Lawrenceville had no BSL requiring that certain dogs where a muzzle.

Although they are not the animal control agency, I felt I had some backup in an email if approached and told I was violating a law. So I took the risk. If the local animal rescue agency didn’t know about the law, and the city didn’t know, it must be pretty obscure. And the penalty was simply a fine if it was enforced.
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I’m so glad I took the risk. Tuck seems pretty happy with my decision too.

​We were dropped off at the entrance, (‘Your are Here”) and we walked only a matter of feet before hitting a path around a lake.

Unfortunately, the rest room I was in desperate need of was a mile walk away--on the other side of the lake. I now understood how Tucker feels when I don’t pick up his cue that he needs to go to the bathroom. We were ironically in the exact opposite situation. He, with his endless choices of places to defecate right now, and I, the human, on a uncomfortable walk through the forest to a man-made building to do my business. I was quite close to going in the woods, but I had no Kleenex, the forest cover wasn’t terribly thick, and I wasn’t familiar enough with the park to know sightline and where some child might just come bouncing through the woods off trail.

So while the first portion of our hike was not the least bit enjoyable for me, once I got relief, I began to enjoy my surroundings.

Being stuck in a office five or six days a week with no windows drains my soul. This day would fill it back up again.
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The soft earth and shaded paths we walked along took us to a lake with a wide grassy area to walk along. If Tucker had perfect recall, I would have let him off the leash to see him bound a quarter mile down the lane.

​The journey on this path was diverse. 

​The trail veered south around the edge of the lake and returned to forest once more. The lake and woods was home to many who were enjoying this Friday afternoon. A family of turtles spotted us just as I spotted them and quickly dropped into the water like SCUBA divers off the edge of a boat. Two remained, and then just one as we passed in front of them on the trail.

It was hard to believe I was so close to the city. I couldn’t hear traffic. I couldn’t see car. It was just a lake in the woods, as remote as the lake in the Santa Cruz mountains Tucker and I had visited in March.

While we walked the secluded edge of the lake, a great heron (not sure if was an actual Great Heron, but it sure was great to me) made its graceful landing into the shallow end. We kept our distance so as not to disturb this beauty, but felt blessed to witness its descent and could have stood watching it all day long.

Someone had placed a swing in on little outcropping toward the lake. Here we stood for a moment, enjoying the peaceful serenity of the open, still lake. While we had encountered benches along the way, this was the first hanging seat.

When we were about to leave, a grand blue dragonfly alighted on a tree branch in front of me. I nodded a hello and asked if I could take his picture (after telling him how beautiful he was of course.) He obliged, but I could not capture his true glory with my piddly phone.

​We walked back to the trail and continued on our flora and fauna tour. The trail took Tucker and me out into the woods, and onto the perimeter of another lake. Since we were on the far side of the park away from boat launches and picnic pavilions and even children's’ park, we had the trails to ourselves except for a few runners. It was just us, the trees, and the creatures who call this place home.

​As the day grew to a close and we had circled back almost to our original drop off point, the path turned back to pavement. There, we sat on a bench, reading and being still.

Movement is good for the soul, letting your energy out to affect to the world around you. But being still and open gives the universe a chance to respond.

It is here, in the woods, that I not only speak to nature, but it talks back, and we engage in the grand conversation about life, love, and all the beauty the universe holds.