I was mesmerised and everything felt very still, yet very alive around me. I could have gone on but let go and pulled my hands back. Then, as I was in a kind of disbelief too, I tried again very slowly stretching my arms and feeling the leaves. This time I actually saw that as was getting closer and closer the leaves also moved to meet my fingers. I am sure someone can provide a scientific explanation based on static, weather conditions or laws of attraction… but when ‘we touched’ again that particular & immense feeling was back on, and I was locked in it.

I stopped and reached upward and straightened my arms. Doing so I touched the leaves above me – some young shoots of a big old tree. As I touched the leaves with my fingertips, the feeling intensified and I could hold that moment for longer. All that, in these puzzling, unfathomable times.

I took account of how lucky we are with my kids at home studying and me being able to run in this beautiful forest. Very suddenly and unexpectedly I had this overwhelming feeling, this strong gratitude to nature, or for life, for what we have had and still can have. The moment was intense and still cannot describe exactly how I felt but I felt LOVED. And confident, happy, cared for and caring. For everyone. And energised. I was always alone. The weather was rainy and unfriendly and mud was everywhere. The tree crowns & the foliage lessened the intensity of the pouring rain but still got soaked every time. One day, I finished my run and was walking back up the path catching my breath and stretching my arms out. I thought about the people in the hospitals in Italy that was in the news that morning.

Yes, at that time when covid had just started. We entered our first 6-week lockdown with home schooling, controlled shopping and requests not to meet other people or go far from our dwellings. I escaped into nature’s arms by going trail running in the nearby forest just outside Chardonne, which was good for the body and spirit. I used the time between my kids waking up in the morning and starting their work for the day (which took much longer: going from the bed to the kitchen table prepped with their school stuff than when they actually walked to school!).ĭuring those hours I put on my shoes and run in the forest. I did not meet a soul. It is about a very unique experience I had a little more than a year ago.

The secret life of trees book