“Visiting Silver Springs this time of year is a reminder that Winter won’t last forever. I love the seasons and do my best to embrace each one, but by late February, I’ve grown weary and seeing green against the snow is like medicine.

When I was studying herbs, we learned that every poison’s antidote is within the radius of human vision. Jewelweed grows near and relieves the rash of Poison Ivy. Dock Plant calms the burning of its neighbor Stinging Nettle. The relationship between the Chechem & Chaka trees is a fascinating example of poison and its antidote being in the same vicinity. Nature is wise. Nature provides.

I thought these thoughts as I navigated the trail. The surface alternated between a thick layer of ice covered with a bit of snow, treacherous to the distracted, and frozen ground with a thin layer of sloppy mud. A number of trees had fallen across the trail since I was there last. The footpath had changed, like the world. “All we can do is try to manage obstacles, both figurative and literal,” I said to myself. That’s what I love about hiking. Most things on the trail can be directly related to life off the trail. Time in the forest is time to think and transform little fact nuggets into full-blown ideas.

Can Winter be poison and this little spring be the cure? Does that follow the rule, at least theoretically? What is poison? Can poison be an attitude? War seems like poison. What is the cure? Is there a universal cure? What is the radius of human vision? Does it have to be literal vision?

Standing on the shore of the Fox River, I listen. Geese honk and a bird I can’t see twills and twitters. I hear the swoosh of ducks leaving the water and turn to watch them rise into the blue sky. Are these sounds in the bird’s radius of vision? Are they mine? Is connecting with something greater within that radius? Does our spiritual belief system define our radius of human vision?

What if Meditation, Prayer, Art or Music (whatever connects one with something greater) is the superpower within each of us? What if it’s a universal antidote to every poison?

Last week my Reiki teacher, Jeanne Steen, led a mediation for Peace. In the invitation, she quoted her sister “Action alleviates anxiety.” Those words seared themselves in my brain as truth. When someone is in crisis, we might wring our hands, worry and wonder what we can do. Powerlessness leaves one feeling weak and inadequate. Action alleviates anxiety. Truth.

I think it’s time to act.