Woods, orienteering, pie face.

I went for a run today in the woods.

“The Peace Of Wild Things” 

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

– Wendell Berry

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I also went orienteering in the woods today too.  This is the third time I’ve gone.  The first time, I easily did the two beginner courses in which the controls hug pretty closely to the trails.  The 2nd time I went, I decided to do the easiest intermediate course – the controls were off the trail and I thought I could wing it (there are like 8 levels of difficulty and I was only getting up to 3rd level), I found the first control, but couldn’t for the life of me find the second control and was lost in the woods for a good while and embarrassingly had to pull out my phone GPS to find my way back to the visitor center of the park.  This 3rd time, I had spent some time earlier in the week trying to understand the little codes on the map, so I was rudimentarily prepared.  I also was semi-determined not to get too lost in the woods.  This time, I found the first three controls in about an hour, I didn’t use my phone GPS to rescue me, but I did ask a 14 year old I bumped into for directions and I felt lost only 40% of the time I was out there.

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After a long week, we all enjoyed watching Jane, Sarah and Christine play the game Pie Face.