Yesterday I took a quiet walk in the woods, thinking that the fresh air and quiet surroundings would be a positive way to allow me to empty my mind of the trivial problems I was trying to solve. It didn’t. Instead, the more I walked, the more detours my mind took until I found myself entangled in a mess of confusing thoughts and emotions. My attention was focused inward. With no intentional effort, I had chosen to exclude everything around me.
Today I again walked the same wooded path. I smelled the fresh air, and felt a natural calm as the rising sun flickered among the trees. And it dawned on me. Yesterday on my walk I saw nothing. (Well, I did see a furry caterpillar rippling across the path in front of me, but this was proof of the fact that my eyes were down, not up.)
But today was different. Every time a thought began to creep in, I chose to brush it aside….a deliberate choice to stay in the present. And as I looked upward and around me, inner thoughts began to fade and slowly I became aware of the calm morning unfolding.
I heard a rustling in the bushes….and nearby I caught sight of a fox running away from me, leaping high (the grass was tall) as it increased the distance between us. It stopped momentarily to look back at me. She would then run a little more and once again stop to watch me. She kept running.
I say ‘she’ because soon her behavior became apparent. As I continued my walk I saw them—three furry little fox pups rolling over each other less than 10 yards away. I stopped. There they were, frolicking, unaware of—or at least unconcerned with—my presence. One paused as he caught sight of me and, in a gesture that spoke of his innocence, walked toward me. I remained still. He stayed a few moments, then scampered to a nearby tree under whose roots offered the sanctuary of their dugout den. The second joined his sibling. But the third remained watching me. Finally bored and unconcerned, it yawned and settled in the grass for a nap.
I had walked past all of this yesterday. They undoubtedly had been here—it was the same hour, the same morning air, the same path….all was the same as today. The difference was in me. Today I had allowed my attention to focus not on myself, but on my surroundings. I had opened myself to receive what was going on around me.
And a whole new world had revealed itself.
Hugs,
Marilynn Visit me on my website! www.releasedtotheangels.com
