I crave the peace of nothingness. I don’t mean a void, but a quiet mind.
I want to walk and simply feel the movement of my body, without stopping to record or name what I see. To silently witness without judgment. To let my breath come and go independent of my footfalls.
The path is gouged and hilled by muddy tire tracks. The thick kind made by an ATV. I walk here as often as this one person rides, but I’d have to bring a shovel and hours of work to do such damage.
But I’m not disappointed.
My legs carry me too fast for my mind to think about it for too long. I don’t stop even as I pick up a can (Vodka-Seltzer- Real Juice) flattened by those same tires.
The droning flies and stinging mosquitoes help keep me moving. I brush a mosquito from my arm one moment and squish another on the back of my neck the next.
No time to think is not the same as nothingness. But as I leave the woods, my body, if not my mind is softer from being spent.
Your last paragraph, those 2 sentences, will be with me for days, maybe weeks. There’s so much feeling within the words.
I love that you could feel it Lois Jean.
This sounds so much like a Buddhism practice: walking as a mindfulness meditation. The breath and the footfall interwoven and the connection with the earth felt.
I was fortunate enough to attend a week’s retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery years ago with Thich Nhat Hanh. His meditation walks through the woods we’re especially peaceful and silent.
Sounds like a wonderful experience Helen.