Thank you for writing this article! It made think about and appreciate the natural blessings of my own neck of the woods.

I live in a city where the inner core is ringed by a greenbelt, and in a suburb perched on the outer edge of that greenbelt. While my surroundings are certainly deserving of the usual epithets thrown at suburbs (cookie cutter housing, car-centric planning, public transit that is little more than a rumor), my neighborhood is extremely well-served by walking and bicycle paths, with the aforementioned greenbelt being only a five-minute walk from my front door.

Having grown up only one subdivision over from where I live now, I can relate to your affection for the woodlands you have known throughout your life — my equivalent was the nearby Old Quarry Trail, located at the western entrance to Stony Swamp.

In any case, I always find that a good, long walk in the greenbelt give me a chance to let the voices of my worries subside, or at least retreat further back enough that I can easily ignore and disconnect them, and then my own genuine inner voice take center stage.