A magical encounter

I've always been someone who looks for adventure. Always. I want to have something to tell people when I come back and take all the possible chances. That is why I rarely say "no" when someone proposes to me something different.

This time I was in Finland, more precisely in a little house on the fjords. There was a beauty all around with big trees reflecting on the calm water and it seemed an uncontaminated place.

If you were in silence you could have heard only the birds, the water gently caressing the shore, and the wind moving the top of the trees. Some places just give you immense peace. It seems like they were created solely to give you moments of bliss from the rest of the world, so chaotic.

A friend asked me if I wanted to go for a walk in the forest, and of course I said yes. While walking through the trees you could tell people had never been there before. There was no path or whatsoever. And no noise.

I was walking, so taken away from my thoughts, looking around in this beauty that I didn’t even realize I couldn't see my friend anymore. I kept walking thinking he was somewhere behind me probably hidden by the numerous trees so thick. I kept going.

After few minutes I realized my friend wasn't behind me at all. I was alone. Completely alone. And clearly lost.

But I wasn't really afraid I was somehow amused. Because I was just feeling so privileged to be there, completely alone with a whole forest to myself. Not very smart thought but you know, maybe I was trying to compensate the actual fear slowly growing on me. As I walked trying to find a way out, the weirdest encounter of my life took place.

One of the most magical moments: a reindeer appeared, not too far from me in between the trees. So blended in the landscape, I took a while to realize it was there, guess maybe I felt somehow observed. I stopped and froze and couldn't believe my eyes. Was that actually happening? Was I alone in a forest in Finland with a reindeer looking at me?

I moved so so slowly trying to avoid the noise of the dried leaves cracking under my feet. I took one more step and the reindeer fled.

I laughed because I felt that could have been a sort of hallucination. I had the urge to tell someone but at the same time I wanted to keep that precious moment to myself, like a hidden jewel in a nightstand. When you share a story that means a lot to you, it tends to lose a little bit of magic. Eventually it was getting late and I started realizing that if there was a reindeer there could have easily been a bear too, it was better for me to find my way out. I walked and walked with no sense of orientation but my own intuition. It wasn't my body following the mind, it was the mind following the body.

Finally I stopped seeing trees: this time I saw some blue over all those branches and leaves, a horizon maybe?

Yes! Yes I found a way out! I heard voices, my friend's voice.. I made it.

A beautiful view of the fjord welcoming me outside of the wood. There I was. Breathless, excited. I decided not to tell my friend about my encounter, I decided it was something between me and the forest, between me and that place, me and that majestic reindeer..now between me and you.