Whispering Forest - 30 Minute Writing Exercise

Raw writing for 30 minutes, expect errors. 

Tonight's prompt, "I woke up to the forest whispering..."


*Timer starts...NOW

I woke up to the forest whispering this morning... again.

It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough. Sometimes it's like it's yelling at me.

I'm not sure how it started, but I was probably 5 when it happened.

I remember running around the family apple tree and tripping on a root.

"OUCH! Stupid tree!" 

I walked to the trunk and smacked it.

As if in response, a crab apple fell right on my head. 

I swear I heard a sort of response when the apple hit my head. A sort of "Hey!"

At that age everything is magic. I think I cried? I couldn't tell my mom about it, but I went to my room and cried in embarrassment. 

The second time I happened to be at my high school girlfriend's house. She was getting ready in her room and left me alone with her mom in the kitchen. 

I couldn't concentrate. There was this pothos in a fish bowl above the cabinets. The house had high ceilings and skylights. This pothos had vines extended all across the tops of the cabinets lazily draping down and I kid you not, it was breathing out the words, "water" to me. 

"Water... please. Water."

I had to do something, "Miss, how long have you had that pothos? I don't think I've ever seen vines that long."

"About 10 years. Goodness! It sure is thirsty isn't it? I swear I just added water yesterday."

She continued adding water while asking me about what I was going to do after graduation.

I know you won't believe it, but I swear I heard, "thank you" on my way out the house. 

They say magic wears away with age. That only the youth can really see it and be in it. I'd like to change that sentiment that it's only those who leave their youth behind that can't see it. 

*15 minute mark

After graduation I moved closer to the Rocky Mountains. The people were different, the smells were different, the plants and life... they were very different. They seemed to me to be only best described as louder.

I decided to experiment at a house party one night with a girl named Daisy. She had a moon tattoo behind one ear and a sun behind the other and considered herself a very "spiritual" being that all swore by only washing her hair with moon water. 

We experimented in many ways and in the afterglow she was spinning this tale of being connected to mother earth and that mother earth would respond back if you talked to her. 

I'd like to say I chuckled, but in that moment, I swear it was one of the most real things I ever heard.

I woke up the next day by a campus sprinkler spraying me in the face. 

In the mental fog I remember thinking, "This pine is here for me, and I am here for this pine" and so I decided that I would sleep under the shelter of its brambles. 

This time I swear it remarked, "fucking idiot". 

Daisy. Pine. Pining... it was right.

Things were still loud. 

It might be a spell that Daisy cast on me that night. It might be the experimenting or the not wanting to grow up. 

I believe the trees talk to me. Call me Johnny Appleseed or consider me a Hobbit and a friend of the Ents. 

I can walk into a building and feel these emotions. Practically words in my mind from the life around me. Asking for light, for water, for a change of scene. They ask to be appreciated.

Last night words were louder than usual. They FELT bigger than usual, so I decided I'd go out into the forest. 

I found space between the caress of gentle roots. In my sleeping bag, I leaned back into the trunk of a tree and found silence and peaceful rest.

I woke up to the forest whispering...