The daily grind of work, driving, household chores and dealing with people you would care not to can be exhausting after a while. In the city we lose our connection with nature. Many of us don’t even care to glance out at the stars at night. And who can blame us? Light pollution from street lights and lamps, office buildings and maybe all the blue screens in our living rooms obscure the Milky Way. Can any one tell me what phase the moon is even in right now?
When the City runs me down the woods is where I can retreat to and recharge. Where we tell time by the location of the sun in the sky, and judge dinner time when the wind dies down on the lake and the temperature drops.
It probably sounds silly to a lot of people, but the woods of the high sierra is my temple, where I feel a more spiritual connection than in any Mass I have attended.
When we were writing American Landscape, we wrote many songs that did not make the final cut. Here is a song that I wrote about Spirituality and the Woods.

House of Light
It’s the random way the wind blows, leaves off the trees
Infinite ways they fall all around me, in a silent song sang only to me

An ominous wave of energy is washing all over me
A prediction, a whisper, see
And the storm closes in

Here in a place more spiritual than any cathedral the world has ever seen
I don’t need a priest or a bible or someone to lead me
I have my own intuition to guide

It’s the way the blue green flame dances in front of me
throwing smoke and ash up through the trees

Finally it’s coming to me, I can see so clearly
And never before have I seen so clearly

View From The OldTown