Green Trails in the Forest

Today we did a hike with Green Trails and had a fika in the woods around a campfire. You can see on the left the pot of coffee we brewed over the fire. We also had rolled pieces of bread with cinnamon, sugar, and butter that we toasted on the grate. This was a meaningful experience: we all got to work together to light the fire and could share a cup of coffee and talk in a beautiful forest. Our tour guides talked about how important it is to just spend time with people you care about and take an intentional coffee, or fika, break. I think the intentionality is such a key part of the experience; I feel like in America people will grab coffee but won't have it be an intentional break from what they are doing because they will drink it as they work or commute. Obviously this isn't true for everyone, but it was interesting to hear from the guides about how prominent fikas are in Swedish culture. Pouring the coffee out of the pot with a tree branch as the coffee filter also made it feel like we were really embracing the nature around us. My favorite moment of the day, though, was when we took ten minutes to just lay in the moss on the forest floor. It was completely silent in the forest and I could focus on the beauty of the surroundings and the softness of the moss. If it was up to me I would have lain on the spongy bed of moss for an hour and kept watching the trails of ants move around the forest floor.