cedar_grove | Learning the Journey

From The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.

I learn, by going, where I have to go.
-Theodore Roethke

We drove to a lake that one of us had heard of. Around it was a path. We brought a few simple things: bread, water, bananas. We circled the lake, stopping at certain patches of light. Huge acorns were dropping from the canopy and small ravens where preening on branches sagging over the water.

Mir and I have this little bag, and a little book each in which we note down places of interest to visit in North Carolina. We haven't really been anywhere in a while, what with one thing and another, but that's not the point. It's the exporing that is the fun part... and I know we'll get back to doing that when we're ready :)

But it brings to mind a funny story - well, funny in a serious kind of way...

We were looking for a park that, supposedly, had a large relief map on NC state somewhere in the middle of it. We were pretty sure that we'd found the right place, but had no idea where abouts it might have been and time was getting on... so we decided to take a walk along a woodland trail, walking along seeing what we could see. On the map, the trail didn't look to be too long and was a circular trail, so we would end up pretty much back where we began and able to get back into the car and drive on home.

Walking the trail was really quite special - to see all the woodland plants, and the creatures that lived on or beside the trail, and on the lake that the trail went around. We were enjoying ourselves, taking pictures, just walking along and being together - precious times.

Yet... we walked and walked and still no sign of getting back to the beginning, just getting further and further out away from where we started... and as I've mentioned, time was getting on. Mir is very protective, and gods know, I love her for that. She's my guy. Her every thought is about making sure I'm safe and happy. I couldn't be a luckier woman for that reason alone, but that's just the tip of the iceberg of our love for one another. Anyway, I digress... time was getting on and still no sign of the 'end' of the path, so... worried that we'd get lost and I'd be stuck in the middle of the wood as it was getting dark and no really very safe, Mir decided that we had to turn around and go back the way we'd come.

Not a bad plan really, except that... in order to get back to the car before it got dark, what had been a leisurely walk through beautiful surroundings, because a forced march along the path. Please don't think I'm complaining. I'm not. Mir and I still laugh about this now, but we definitely learned a lesson on that trip, a few lessons most likely... not the least of which was never trust the map, even if it says it's to scale.

This particular trail was far longer than it looked on the map - and one day we will get back there, early in the day, to walk the rest of it. It truly was a beautiful walk.