Deviation Actions
Description
As others were -- I have not seen
As others saw -- I could not bring
My passions from a common spring --
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow -- I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone --
And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone --
From 'Alone' by Edgar Allan Poe
This poem appeals to me because I can really relate to it. The feeling of not belonging and of being different.
As a child I used to take a detour when I was walking home from school, choosing to go through the forest rather than sticking to the road. I could spend hours in that forest, and I never got lost- no matter how deep into it I wandered. There was a particular tree that I would return to year after year and I would always give it a hug.
My love for the natural world was not well tolerated in school and other kids made fun of me for it. In their eyes I was not normal. But now as an adult, looking back, I sometimes wonder if I was in fact the normal one. I saw myself as part of Nature, not separate from it. Maybe the way we have separated ourselves is abnormal.
I was told years ago that there were plans to cut down that forest to make way for new areas of houses and streets. Having moved away from my childhood home, and never having been back, I don't know if it ever happened, but in my mind the forest is still there.
Watercolour and coloured pencils.
This is such a charming and enchanting image. I love it!
I can certainly identify with that feeling of being separate, and different. I still feel that. I am an introvert and have pretty much been a loner most of my life. I have never been a social kind of person. I prefer to be around 5 people or less. I hate crowds and don't feel safe in them. I have never been to sports events, nor even concerts that I have been asked to. Too many people, and too close.
This was before all of the Covid stuff of course. I have always been this way.
I love the forest as well. I never met a tree I didn't love! 
I am a tree hugger too, literally. What I believe is that everything on this living planet is a part of everything else, people, rocks, plants, birds, animals, everything. To harm something else, is ultimately to harm ourselves.
I was fortunate in having been raised on a farm as a child and my mom took us on "nature walks". We learned which plants were safe and which were aggressive, like a type of briar that we called 'greenbriars' which looked like rose bushes without the roses. We called them "wait a minute" vines.
Also we learned which animals were safe and which were not, and even spiders and snakes were part of that growing education. Consequently there aren't many animals I have a fear of and I am not afraid of snakes, spiders, or bugs either.