Welcome to my world of "slow life"- Hidasta -in Finnish- discovering how Nature is our own True Nature. Most of my life I have been an educator of early childhood and special education and more recently at the university and in the graduate school teacher education programs. In 2015 I was on sabbatical in Finland, researching their education system, where there is assessment but no “testing” as we know it based on trust. There, I was introduced to the Japanese practice of Shinrin Yoku, literally "forest bathing" and I learned to slow down enough to deepen my own relationship with myself in nature. I had been teaching Mindfulness for many years and practicing zazen meditation and had dedicated myself to health and wellbeing. In May, 2019, I retired from Morehead State University in Kentucky and that very month, attended the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT.earth) training in Norway (Cohort 39). I now live in the Hickory Nut Gorge wilderness in western North Carolina where I guide walks and continue to assist others who are eager to awaken to the wild true nature within themselves. For me, this is pure privilege as I learn the watershed, the land, come to know intimate relationships with the more-than-human world here, and also privileged to study indigenous wisdom from those whose land this was, before my ancestors arrived. The truth of these words: "The forest is the therapist; the guide opens the doors" come alive in me each day. My eternal gratitude to all those on this path of awakening! “Now, more than ever” has become a new mantra for me.