Very little sunlight penetrated the thick canopy of old, dense tree growth, and where I walked was chilly and dark, despite the sunny day. Years of decaying leaves carpeted the forest floor, silencing my footfalls. I was deep in the woods in an area new to me in Butler Sanctuary. The 350 acres of field and woods, just over an old stonewall from my family’s ten wooded acres, were a sanctuary for me, a shy, hurting, often frightened child. But this area seemed different. I often wandered freely in the Sanctuary through fields and over hills and rock outcroppings, not following any trails, and somehow this day, I had found…