_{Sometimes I need to go so far
that I no longer hear my name.}

_{Into the redwoods,
where the trees soar above me,
holding up the sky,
and every footstep
is swallowed by the duff.}

_{There,
the silence is not absence
but fullness.}

_{It gathers in the spaces
between the branches,
in the damp breath of the earth,
in the hush that hangs in the air.}

_{I want to stand there long enough
for the noise inside me
to finally grow still.}

_{Sometimes I need the mountains—}

_{the sharp, crisp air,
the long, exhilarating climb,
the world stretching endlessly at my feet.}

_{I want to reach the top
and feel the wild wind around me
without having to explain myself.}

_{No answers.
No conversation.
No need to be useful.}

_{Only sky
and stone
and breath.}

_{The strange relief
of being small
in a place so vast.}

_{Sometimes I need the sea—}

_{to stand on the high cliffs above
and watch the white water
break against the rocks.}

_{To feel the salt wind on my face,
to hear that deep, thunderous rhythm,
and let something inside me
loosen with every crash.}

_{The ocean asks nothing of me.}

_{It simply rises,
breaks,
and begins again.}

_{There are days
when the soul needs quiet.}

_{It needs a forest
that does not interrupt,
a mountain
that asks no questions,
an ocean
that speaks in thunder
without waiting for a reply.}

_{Sometimes I need to disappear—}

_{not because I am lost,
but because I have lost
too much of myself.}

_{And somewhere
beneath ancient trees,
or high above the clouds,
or standing over a restless sea,}

_{the silence calms my restless heart,
little by little,
until I can feel
my own soul again.}

_{If you call for me
and I do not answer,
wait a while.}

_{I will be there soon.}