ON WALKING AND NATURE

Walking and nature - a great combination. Last weekend I truly felt in need of doing something that would touch my soul; that would resonate with my core and bring me back to ground. Sometimes there is a real need in my life to return to base-camp.

Base-camp, for me, is a quiet, contemplative place that is rich with space and grace; with acceptance and love. It is a place that at once feels safe and yet also affords amazing freedom. Nature is that place for me.

My mind and body seem to be stuck in the "winter in Wisconsin" mindset, even as I look out my window, in Florida, at a green expanse of lawn and trees heavy with new foliage and azaleas in bloom. Which really helps me to awake to the importance of mindset in whatever we do.

I have been in a bit of a "blue funk" the last couple of days. Just one of those things. It has been a bit rainy and a bit gray and that might be contributing. So I have been doing more meditation and quiet time, which is tremendously helpful. I will go for a walk today, in the rain and take my camera.

I have been meaning to photograph the road on which we now live. It is absolutely magical in places, like entering into another world. It exists in the city but feels like deep, rural south. A walking photo expedition in the rain, that sounds engaging.

The pictures here are from last weekend's walk through Fort Caroline and the Tumucuan preserve. I discovered it while lost and looking for the bird sanctuary out by Amelia Island. I never did make it to the bird sanctuary, so that's is left to another weekend. But I did discover Fort Caroline and the hiking trails around that area.

There is something lovely about a walk through the woods, the call of birds, the wind in the trees, the sun on my back. Fort Caroline is a delightful marriage of coastal waterway, marsh and rolling wooded hikes. It is a very small part of the 46,000 acre Timucuan preserve - an estuary wetland preserve. 

You know you've been fully immersed in what you are doing when you realize, after arriving home, that you are covered in a fine powdered dirt that has blackened your sneakers and socks and left your face streaked with gray.

I suppose it's like a child coming in from playing and the surprise on their face when their mother exclaims, "Oh! You are filthy!" Funny, but I reluctantly washed the grime away, as I reveled once more in how it felt getting it there.

If I had a day that I could give you
Id give to you a day just like today
If I had a song that I could sing for you

Id sing a song to make you feel this way

Hugs
Betsy