Welcome.
This meditation is a little different.
There is nowhere you need to sit,
No eyes to close.
No particular way you need to breathe.
We're going for a walk.
Not to reach somewhere,
Not to get your steps in.
Not even to clear your head.
The next little while,
We're simply going to notice the living world around us.
So begin walking at whatever pace feels natural.
You don't need to walk slowly unless you want to.
Let your body find its own rhythm.
And before we go looking for anything beautiful.
Notice where you actually are.
The path beneath you.
The temperature of the air.
The sounds closest to you.
And then the sounds further away.
There is a whole world happening around you that doesn't require your participation.
You don't need to organize it,
Answer it,
Improve it,
Or understand it.
You simply get to witness it.
As you continue walking,
Let your eyes wander.
Not searching,
Just noticing where they naturally want to go.
Maybe something catches your attention.
A tree.
The movement of grass.
A bird overhead.
Light falling somewhere beautifully.
Something tiny growing through a crack in the par.
Stay with whatever caught you for just a moment.
Notice what made you look.
The color.
Movement.
Something you can't quite name.
And then keep walking.
Now look a little closer at the world around you.
Notice something small.
Something you could easily have walked past.
Take it in.
You don't need to know its name.
You don't need to identify the plant or the bird or understand what you're seeing.
Knowing isn't required for wonder.
Keep walking.
And this time.
Allow your gaze to travel further.
Towards the tops of the trees.
Across the landscape.
Into the sky.
Towards whatever distance is available to you.
Notice the difference between looking closely.
And looking far away.
You are here amongst something much larger than your own thoughts.
There are things growing around you without being watched.
Birds moving through lives you'll never fully know.
Roots spreading beneath the ground.
Clouds traveling overhead.
Wind moving through places far beyond where you are standing and walking.
Life continuing.
Everywhere.
And you are not separate from that.
Your footsteps belong to this moment too.
Your breath.
The warmth of your body.
The sound you make as you move through the world.
For a little while,
Let yourself be less interested in what you were thinking.
And more interested in what you are mating.
What is moving?
Wood is growing.
What is making sound?
What is catching the light?
Keep working.
And notice if something makes you want to stop.
If it does,
Stop.
Really look.
There is no lesson you need to take from it.
No meaning you need to assign.
Let something simply be beautiful.
Or strange.
Ordinary.
Or alive.
And notice what happens within you when you give something your full attention.
This is one of the quiet gifts of all.
For a moment.
The world becomes bigger than the things circling inside our own minds.
Not because those things no longer matter.
But because we remember.
There is more.
More happening.
More living.
More becoming.
More mystery than we could ever hold.
Begin walking again when you are ready.
And for the rest of your walk,
I'm going to leave you with one invitation.
Find three things you might ordinarily have missed.
Something small.
Something beautiful.
Something alive.
You don't need to tell anyone about them.
You don't need to photograph them.
Let them simply be things you noticed because you were here.
And when this meditation ends.
Keep walking if you'd like.
Keep noticing.
Let the world come towards you.
There is wonder tucked into incredibly ordinary places.
And sometimes all it asks of us.
Is that we notice.
