It was a bright, clear, early morning when the air was still crisp as I headed up a winding narrow path that lead into the forest. The open pastures slipped behind my backpack until there was no company but the low canopy of spreading pine needles. The sky was still bright above, despite a growing westerly wind that swept through the treetops. Stopping periodically when my legs recommended it, I looked out through the gaps in the green curtains to distant empty hills. The forest took my attention as my daily thoughts left me. I walked further and deeper, feeling the peace of the wilderness overtake me.
After a while, I found myself sitting up the hill just off the path with a cup of tea in silence, watching the life of the forest creep back. It was blissful. It was not long though before I heard voices coming up the path and I looked down to see a couple walking up towards me. The man was in front with his head down and his eyes on the path. Their conversation was continuous, even ceaseless and growing louder as they grew closer.
“I’m not going to pay that kind of money without a tenant!” he shouted back to his wife.
“I’d like to know where he thinks he is going to get the money if he doesn’t!” She called back to him. I let out a slow breath, bracing slightly. Lowering my cup and loosening my fingers, I prepared for a friendly wave and a smile. Louder and louder the conversation continued, dispersing the wildlife in their wake.
I waited until they were exactly in front of me. In fact, if I dropped my cup of tea in front of me, it would have hit their legs. I knew they would be a little startled when they realized I was sitting there, so I braced myself still further. I was just about to break my silence to say hello, when I stopped, almost biting my lip. That tiny pause stretched out before me like an undefined path in the woods. I realized I was invisible. The couple marched on past me, walking in their distraction and I was left alone as one of the trees sinking deeper into the forest floor.
Healing lives in the wild and the unpredictable. This place for most is awkward and uncertain, something that they are essentially at odds with. Healing for many is a distraction at best, or an enemy at worst. When we leave the beaten path of our constricted safety and wander into the wild, if we pay attention to the present moment and accept it as the totality of who we are moment to moment, we find ourselves hiking alone deep into the hills wandering closer to life and all its potentials. I call this place the healing path.
