An illustration of a woman walking barefoot beside a stream in a lush, sunlit forest.

The forest had always called Ella, though she couldn’t explain why. Whenever her head felt full of noise and distractions, she made her way past the dirt road that went to the edge of her town until she heard the sound of the town fall away and it was replaced by the quiet of leaves and rustle of the trees. That early morning, after another sleepless night of worrying about everything she should be doing, she went without a word to anyone. The air was cool and thick with pine. The sun hadn't fully risen, and the light, which filtered through the trees, felt like a breath of fresh air. As she went further into the woods, the world around her seemed to live and breathe the same as she did. The breeze felt like an exhale of relief and the small movements and the waves of stream were calm and quiet. Ella slowed her steps until the only thing she could hear was her own heartbeat, which was steady and calm. All of a sudden, she was noticing things that she had never seen before. She could see the details of every single leaf, the sunlight catching the spider silk, and the shining dust floating in the air. In that moment, she felt incredibly small, but in a weirdly euphoric way, she felt like her worries were fading into something greater than she was. Ella sat beside the stream, where she placed her hand into the cold water and felt it running through her fingers. In the tranquil silence, she recalled something Matthew had once written to her about how few adults could really see See more