ConsciousCreation

Today, my puppies (who are both 13 years young) and I decided it was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods. Lately, we’ve had problems reaching consensus on that issue, so it was really nice to have full support from both of then. And off we went. Rather than just go to the small dog off-leash area, we decided to take the path to the lake and follow a previously unexplored path along its edge! The sound of the water lapping on the bank and the birds chirping now and then were soothing to my soul and the earth smells and the spots of previous eliminations by other four-leggeds were joy to the puppies’ souls!

Not knowing exactly where we were heading, we walked on, passing various forks in the path. Each time, the puppies seemed to know which path to take so I chose to follow their lead. After about an hour on the trail, I begin to pay more attention to the various posted trail maps, thinking we might want to begin the trek back to the car. We had left the lake’s edge and were back on one of the main paths and I was sure that i remembered a short cut back to the dog leash area from when we had done a less adventurous walk several months ago. Sure enough, we got to that fork in the path and started to go left. Daisy and Auggie wanted to go right. Since I was the one reading the map, I decided to ignore their prompt and off we went to the left. We passed some very interesting trees and a lovely pond with wild flowers, all of which I would normally have wanted to stop and appreciate – maybe even take a picture or two to share. However, today my purpose was to just be in nature so no pictures. And I was beginning to feel a bit lost and tired. I also noticed that both puppies were slowing down a little as well. Finally, I had to admit to them that I had been wrong – that left path wasn’t going to get us where we wanted to go. Thankfully, I had my iPhone with me and the “walking” directions on my Google Maps worked brilliantly. So off we went again – retracing our steps. Sure enough, we were directed back to the fork and Maps indicated the correct path was the right path! After another 20 minutes of weary walking, we hopped into the car and off home. We were all hungry and thirsty!

After satisfying our stomaches, they stretched out for a nap and I got back to working on the lesson for tomorrow at Unity of the Valley. That done, I sat in my favorite chair for some meditation time. As it often happens, I came back from meditation with interesting lessons learned.

1. Trust the urge to explore new paths.
2. Trees and their shapes are amazing – each one full of character and beauty.
3. It’s okay to take a picture of a beautiful spot on the walk so long as you pause to love and admire it before you do.
4. When you let your head overrule intuition, we will most often have to retrace your steps to get back on track.
5. Always trust the intuition/instincts of the puppies!
6. If we were already enligtened, there would be nothing to explore.

Peace and blessings from Daisy, Auggie, and Me!