After struggling with addiction for the last time, I set my life on track in a new direction. I have tried to change myself more times than I can remember and feared that this time might end the same as every other, in failure. As I sat in my room in the clean and sober building, I felt confined. I was responsible to the courts to follow a set of rules or I might end up serving another prison sentence. I was restricted to the King County area and had no way to get around, except by bus.
As the days passed, I felt more and more like I had cabin fever. Scrolling through social media each day after attending treatment, going to work, and attending 12 step meetings, I began longing for something else. Photos of trees kept popping up in my feed, and as I walked down streets I would see trees and strangely feel connected to them.
One Sunday morning I felt compelled to get away and travel to the Arboretum in Seattle near the University of Washington. That’s when it all started. I hopped on the bus and rode it to the trees. As I walked around the arboretum and touched them all, I felt such peace. I spent most of the afternoon walking through the trees, sitting with them, and experiencing them. As I did this, I noticed something shift inside of me and I felt less anxious. During classes and work, I found myself daydreaming of the trees.
I began searching for more opportunities to engage with trees in places where there were less people. I found a bus that went all the way to Tiger Mountain so my boyfriend and I went to Issaquah and spent the day hiking the West Tiger Cable Line and down the other side of the mountain. This is the day I switched addictions.
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