I always would wonder what the Black Forest really looked liked. Its name is, in fact, terribly misleading because the Black Forest is probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. I admit, the ‘Black’ Forest isn’t something you’d put a second thought into, before stamping it as scary, depressing, terrifying or basically bad. We’ve got a cake named after this majestic forest, after all! The main reason it has such a deceptive name is not because of the dangerous animals that lurk its corners, or the plants that could poison you to death; barely any of that, really. When we’d travel around Deißlingen (Germany), it appeared as nothing more than a black line of what seemed to be trees, high upon the hill. The trees are not black, the birds living there are definitely not black, the forest itself is not black; it is simply an illusion created by the trees which are dark green and appear black from a distance.
So, the dreaded yet wonderful day came which brought all the beauty of Germany to an end: It was the last day of our stay. The decision had been made to pay a visit to the place I was most eager to see; the Black Forest. I always wanted to enter into the thick blanket of trees which I saw whenever we travelled around Deißlingen. As I said before, it was nothing more than a dark line of trees from far off. Looking at it from up-close was… mesmerizing, amazing and so absolutely beautiful.
Looking at the trees, at how far they stretched up into the sky, made me want to do nothing except stare. No thinking, no talking, just- staring. It was so lovely how the light had shined on the trees and how the thick branches of the needle trees blocked some of the light, so you had this wonderful shadow cast onto the grass and the moss of the Black Forest. I was lucky it was a sunny day, for I had never, ever in my entire life seen something that made me want to just sit there and smile at my surroundings.
There were no birds chirping, no people talking, just utter, complete silence except for the silent murmuring of my mother and aunt. As we walked, the further and deeper we went into the forest, I fell more and more in love with the silence and with the solitude that prevailed. I kept thinking about all the things I’d like to do in that place, and none of them consisted of anything more than sitting and just looking at it all, absorbing all the beauty and the calmness. I wanted to climb the incredibly long trees and look at everything.
Even, as we walked, I could not muster up the words to say anything because the view in itself had stolen all the words I wanted to say, but even as my lips could not form words, I couldn’t help wondering about the Being that made these trees look how they are, and how perfect it all was. It looked so precise and calculated and so entirely flawless. I was fascinated and even that is a terrible underestimate. There were these long logs of wood lying on the edge of the path, and it made me wonder of the people who put them there. Whether they came here on a regular basis and were witness to this beauty on every living day of their life. There were passersby who we would occasionally see going for a jog, but even then it remained extremely silent, as if anyone who talked too loud was afraid that they might wake some invisible creature from their slumber, which was quite how it felt. In a way, that forest was living and the inhabitants of the forest did not want to disturb it. The forest was alive; yet so, so, quiet.
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