The Enchanted Forest

Practicing the homework that I had just assigned to the students in my Creativity in Business class, I took an alternate route on my morning hike.  I entered the park from a different direction and walked my regular trail in reverse.  I felt slightly off balance doing this and discovered something unexpected.

As much as I thrive on and enjoy my morning hikes, I usually have an agenda – combine aerobic exercise in nature with a goal to clear my mind, think about something I want to sort out, or listen for new ideas.  My stride is purposeful and dynamic.  With an agenda comes routine.  Take the same route, finish in (or under) the usual amount of time.

This walk had a completely different quality.  I felt open, curious, relaxed and sensorially expanded.  I dawdled along the way to take pleasure in the wildflowers, stood in a redwood fairy ring, slurped up the sounds of birdsong and the rushing creeks.  I felt the cool sensation of the air on my skin, how the ground supported my steps, soaked in the myriad shades of green and explosion of new growth everywhere I looked.

I felt a heightened sense of awareness of everything around me – as though I could hear with every pore.  It was beautifully, lusciously, delightfully, sensual.

Every day we’re confronted with a gap, often painfully wide, between the life we live now and a life of deep enchantment. – Marianne Williamson

Now I understand that my experience of this enchanted place is what it means to be awake to the present moment.  It’s an expanded state of listening – with full attention and all of the senses – open to information from other realms of knowing than those we normally rely on.  It’s a magnetic force that flows to us naturally when we let go of routine, agenda, control, and expectations.  It’s available whenever we choose to surrender into it.  The gift of everyday grace.