Come Walk with Me

An elder walk, with time to look and see, hear and listen, touch and feel.

Come for a walk with me. It will be an elder walk, so we will walk slowly and stop along the way. A lot. 

It is one of my favorite places. A sacred place and space for me. It is my church and where I most feel the connection to the Divine. 

Are you ready? Let’s begin.

The entrance shows a path, through a children’s playground. Hear them laughing and yelling and playing. Somehow it seems fitting that at the beginning of our walk we see the youth of life. The start. The joy of playing and being alive. The exuberance. The sheer presence and excitement of simply being. Let’s watch them for a moment and delight in their joy and happiness. I am grateful that parents and teachers bring children here to feel the power, see the beauty, feel that they are part of this all. The beauty that this earth has to offer. The things that we want to preserve for future generations.

Remember when you were a child? You still have this within you. It is the part of you that smiles when you look at these young souls playing, laughing, running and being so fully alive. You remember, even if for a moment. 

Ok, time to walk a bit more. See that path off to the side there? Let’s take it. It leads to a place where children (and adults) can use whatever they find in nature to create things. Mostly I see tee-pee type creations. Teepees made of branches found. Instinctual urges to build a home, an honoring of the earth as our home and belonging to it, a recognition.

As we leave this part of the forest, we walk for a while and come to one of my favorite parts of this sacred space. We enter a grove of redwoods. Tall and majestic. Let’s stop here for a few moments. Walk with me to the middle of this small grouping of trees. Now lean up against one of them. Feel it supporting you. Can you feel the connection? 

You may notice that I am crying now. Sometimes touching these trees, who feel like ancestors, brings tears for me. It is a depth of a connection that I don’t have words for, only deep feelings. Feelings that need to come out in tears. I am grateful for that. It is life expressing itself. It is my soul resonating with something beyond description. 

Now, as you rest against this tree, look up toward the sky. Can you feel the amazing beauty and majesty of these trees that you cannot even see the top of? What does that make you feel? What might they be telling you? Can you feel how long these ancient beings have been here, what they have seen, what they may want to share with you, wisdom earned throughout the centuries. 

One more thing before we leave this tree. Step back a bit and look at the bark. Tell me what you see. Can you see a face, perhaps? Other things? Other presences here beside us? Take the time to really look, look with your eyes, your heart, your imagination. Feel it. Touch it. See it. Let yourself play. Let yourself see what might be there, what the every day world may discourage you from seeing.

Let’s go further into the woods. Shhhh…listen. What do you hear? We have had more rain this year, so there is water babbling in the brook. Isn’t that the most soothing sound? Stop and listen to it for a while. Let it sink into you. Stop all the busy chatter in your mind and simply listen. Breathe it in. Have you noticed how much more you take in deep breaths here? Somehow, we are reminded to do that more here. To take in the wisdom and calm of these ancestors. To slow down. And to deeply breathe it all in. 

Let’s keep walking. Off to the right there used to be a church here. Very small, where they would sometimes have weddings. The only thing left these days is the cement that it was built on. The cement is in the shape of a cross. Let’s go stand there for a moment and honor all the prayers and sacred events that were held here. Can you feel it?

Listen again. Do you hear the wind rustling through the leaves? Isn’t that beautiful? I like to call it the sound of God whispering. Stop and let that breeze flow through you and calm you where you need it. Let it sink deeply into you. Did you realize how much you needed this?

Have you noticed, as we walk along, the sound of the others talking among themselves? The sound of their voices soft, then louder, then soft again as they pass by and walk away. Moments shared in time. 

This makes me wonder about everything that these trees have heard through the generations while they have stood here. All the children, parents, elders….each enjoying this sacred forest in a different way. 

Let me take you now to one of my favorite places. See the picnic table there. Let’s sit there a while in the midst of all the trees. Once when I was sitting here at dusk, I was lucky enough to see a barn owl swoop down and catch his dinner, an unsuspecting mouse. It was so fast that it took my breath away. The circle of life, yes? And if I hadn’t just taken the time to sit here quietly for a while, I would have missed it completely. I was thrilled that my presence did not seem to deter that owl. I guess he figured that I had been sitting there long enough and wasn’t going to be a problem for him. I was quiet enough to begin to blend in. As it should be. 

Isn’t it lovely just to sit and be here? No place to be, nothing to do. Listening to the bird songs. Did you hear that hawk in the distance? I hear them often while walking in these woods. The sound is hauntingly beautiful to me. 

Time to get going. Let’s head back, slowly. 

Look at that lovely meadow over there. I sat here quietly once and was lucky enough to see a fawn nursing from its mother. In the quiet, nature being itself. For those that stop and take the time. 

I’m glad that you came on this walk with me. That you took the time.

 Time grows ever more precious for me these days, with the road ahead being so much shorter than the road behind me. So, I take time much more now to stop along the way, to see what is there in front of me that I may have rushed by before. To hear and listen to the sounds of the earth and all that live here. To touch other beings and life forms and feel the depth of that connection. We are all of this earth. We are together, living, being, walking this path together. 

Stop. Listen and hear. Look and see. Touch and feel. Life is here. You are here.