INTERNAL COMPASS AND EXTERNAL TALL TREES OR OF WILDFLOWERS AND NATURAL SECRETS

Going off the trodden path and heading into the larger forest, I came to a space that was quiet and still, undisturbed and practically undiscovered. There were on the forest floor one million brown pine needs discarded by the branches and this made for a carpet soft and welcoming. The temperature had dropped and it was cool and comfortable whist the sun still let out shards that reached down here and there and illuminated spiders, mushrooms, birch bark, and other. The dogs, joyous, safe, and content, sought to run ‘round in circles, explore, talk in their own way amongst themselves, sniff the woodland floor and the bases of trees. I went up a large hill and at the summit expected to find a path but I did not. I could have circled or cut back right away or soon, but I went on and we had a little adventure. Little mounds of dirt, large trees strewn with moss and small growths, berries, and even birds awaited us. Soon I could not find a path though, and was thick in the middle of quite dense bushes. When this happens, I actually go slower and take more pictures in order to remain calm, at ease, well paced, and clear of thought and intention. And it worked, because where one might have been lost for a long period, I stopped atop another summit and peered through some bushes that were about twenty feet out of the way. I usually just pick a direction and tread it for better or worse, and if what I thought would be ten minutes turns in to thirty, I just ‘eat’ the loss, and accept it,- and figure its exercise and hiking. But this time I went in a little and peered out to see, because my internal compass plus the tall trees I had seen a few minutes earlier in that direction told me there might be a path there. And voila! - Easy as pie- I spotted it. Even the dogs didn’t understand at first why I was going in that direction, - but I am taller, and could see the clean and crisp and light brown dirt path. Such a path is like an oasis of some sort when you have gotten a bit stuck in the dense kind of underbrush and such. Then ‘pop and we were out, prancing along in the direction home like nobody’s business. With a light gait, a hopeful look to the sky, and a protected and prolonged proper and chosen solitude, we strode along. We were well. I felt good enough to position an acorn in a tree and take a quick picture of it with the path and other trees and sunlight in the background. A bird eyed me curiously and then darted off into the green and brown forest passing by and into realms of wildflowers and natural secrets.


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