My Carolinian Cathedral
This my cathedral is. I crave
No other architrave
Than this majestic vaulted span
Shaped by no skill of man.**
Our Carolinian Forest is just such a cathedral, only much more hallowed and sacrosanct. After being housebound for a full week, standing in the shelter and comfort of this forest luxuriance, I felt my mind slow and my heart expand, knowing I crave no other architrave.
Housebound, but not without excitement!
Have you ever had a vehicle that rattled or squeaked or underperformed in some way but, when you had it in for service, the mechanic could find nothing wrong? That’s me in a nutshell - I’m that jalopy! I’ve developed an alarming propensity for fainting without warning. Yet every test (and I’ve had the lot, believe you me) has come back negative/normal. I’d never once fainted in a doctor’s office, so one and all were stymied.
On Wednesday though, in a specialist’s office at the hospital, my blood pressure suddenly dropped alarmingly low and, before I realised what was happening, a code blue had been called and the crash team appeared as if out of thin air. I felt like a fraud! I was fine. I was breathing normally. As I was sitting, I didn’t even feel faint. It was a horrifying, frightening and mortifying experience but - silver lining - at least now my medical team knows what they’re dealing with.
Meanwhile, with all this swooning (I feel like a Brontë character), my life has shrunk. I’ve not been able to go out without a minder and my chief babysitter, Charlie, was down with heat stroke this week. Our last date was a week ago when, with Charlie watching on, I fainted into a downed tree and bloodied my nose and shin badly. That outing was immediately over - practically before it’d begun. Since then, housebound. ’Til Friday, when Cam hauled me off to Point Pelee and the Centennial Hike & Bike trail.
‘Though by necessity my time in The Carolinian Forest was short, I was able to fully immerse myself in its enchanted atmosphere. Simply being still and quiet amongst these giant trees, and inhaling the forest’s distinct resinous, humus, and floral scents was relaxing. I could feel the physical and mental tension leaving my body, being replaced by a peaceful calm.
More than beautifying our landscape, more than serving as a promotable park feature, and much more than a future lumber harvest, trees, especially old growth trees are far from being simple commodities. Forests are ecosystems that host countless species of flora and fauna, that are able to moderate temperature extremes, store water, and clean our air. Old trees are very powerful and standing on that Point Pelee trail, I knew that I, indeed each one of us, must better honor their function and beauty and the myriad wonders they present us with. Beneath that canopy I felt humbled.
And when I go I take with me
Peace, hope, humility;**
'Til next time, y'all...
**Clinton Scollard from his poem “My Cathedral” — full text below.
*Carolinian Forest Species:
Sweet Chesnut (Castanea dentata)
Sassafras Tree(Sassafras albidum)
Tulip Tree(Liriodendron tulipifera)
Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata)
Red mulberry (Morus rubra)
Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica)
MY CATHEDRAL
I know a pathway through the pines
Where, when the sun declines,
The shadows take on dreamy hues,
Deep violets and blues.
And there is incense that beguiles
Borne down the pillared aisles
From unseen censers✪, fragrant rites
Of hidden acolytes.
And there is music full and fair
Upon the dusking air,
As though there were an organ grand
Played by a master hand.
This my cathedral is. I crave
No other architrave
Than this majestic vaulted span
Shaped by no skill of man.
Here are my holy altars;
here, Prayerful I may revere,
Feeling about me flutterings
As of angelic wings.
For well I know God walks the wood
Clad in beatitude;
In light and shade and sound I sense
His loving imminence.
And when I go I take with me
Peace, hope, humility;
And when I pass I leave behind
Doubt, and the darkened mind.
[Clinton Scollard]
✪A container in which incense is burnt during a religious ceremony.