I met Jim Hood when we attended Guilford College, located in Greensboro, North Carolina as students in the late 1970’s. Jim was one year ahead of me so he became an important guide and mentor. Guilford was founded by the Quakers, Society of Friends, and Jim majored in Religious Studies. We did not share classes together as I recall but we both shared a love for nature. Seems I ran into Jim a lot outside. We both treasured the beautiful campus including the Guilford woods. Sometimes we’d also see each other at the Quaker meetings - traditional unprogrammed meetings where people would feel compelled to speak up in the congregation as well as programmed meetings led by a minister.
I recall coming back to campus after a week with friends camping in the Smoky Mountains when I went to an umprogrammed meeting and after some period of silence I began shaking, like an earthquake (hence the name Quakers), feeling so compelled to speak about my experience in the woods one day. I shared my experience of a full day of hiking and siting in the beautiful mountain woods with friends and by myself where I had long nap (like Rip Van Winkle, but I had not been drinking alcohol or doing any drugs) where I had a vision of a future world like in Tokyo where the air pollution got so thick that people had to walk outside with gas masks. I felt so connected to nature, grateful for the North Carolina woods and determined to work hard to protect nature. Jim gave me positive affirmations after the meeting.
After Jim graduated from Guilford, he continued his studies at Yale and UNC Chapel Hill majoring in English. He returned to Guilford to become an English Professor in 1999 where he took on several related assignments including directing the Studies Abroad international program. My taking a semester in Munich, Germany was a life changing experience that will be the subject of a future blog. Now Jim is the Interim President of Guilford College. The school is facing difficult times financially with declining student enrollment during the pandemic. I trust Jim and many others with strong faith are doing everything they can to survive this crisis.
Another important fact about the Guilford woods is that about two hundred years ago the Quakers actively helped to free slaves by hiding them in the woods to move them out of North Carolina up to New York as part of the Underground Railroad. So nature is always giving and healing and saving lives.
Here is a beautiful video that Jim recorded one year ago at the start of the pandemic to share his meditative connection with nature and going for a walk in the woods!