02/08/2026
Embodied Truth by Cathy McCauley
For the Wabanaki
Over rotting wood,
and past wispy, yellowing prairie plants,
you enter.
Your breath slows.
The trees come into better focus.
With each step, you move deeper into the forest.
Thoughts of the weighing world begin to quiet.
Your body surrenders to the moment,
and to the land — as it watches you.
You recognize towering trees who call this place home.
Swamp Oak, Burr Oak, White Oak, Chinkapin.
Shagbark Hickory with her upturned trunk lives here, too.
A log down by a swampy, wet area calls to you.
You step with care over crackling leaves, sticks and plants.
For a moment, you stop and imagine.
Summer.
Mosquitoes swarm here.
Ticks quest for a meal.
Tall native plants cover the ground, a haven for mice.
A cool spot for mallards and sparrows,
and two fawns with their mother.
You settle onto the log.
A patch of fluffy, green moss grows next to you.
You touch it with slow, curious fingertips.
Your eyes now notice moss growing all around,
at the base of the oaks, along trunks, limbs and branches,
covering fallen, decaying wood.
You wonder how it feels to grow like moss,
a spongy, damp blanket,
heavy with water.
Held by the trees,
caressed by leaves that have let go,
an honorable line of ancestry and carbon absorption.
Moss, a witness to the decomposition
of organic matter mingling
with roots and mycelia and sweet, wet earth.
You close your eyes, and listen.
Leftover autumn leaves rub against each other and whisper in the wind.
You are still; your body rooted.
You breathe.
The scent of fertile, sacred soil fills your nose with knowing.
Hot tears drop like seeds from your eyes.
The oaks persist as you grieve what must be released.
The moss remains soft as your heart gathers strength.
The log supports your body as you melt into being.
Shadows grow longer with the shifting sun.
The browns and greens and blues take on different hues.
It’s time for you to go.
Before crossing the threshold back to the mad, hurried world,
you turn to look once more,
your moss-covered heart
beating,
beating,
beating.
