Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
And I'm on the thirteenth day of my pilgrimage walking the energy currents of the Michael and Mary line across England.
And today you find me beside the River Tor.
I'm very close to a community called Sticklepath which is on the edge of Dartmoor.
And I've actually been walking and skirting around the edge of Dartmoor today.
I've started at a place called Lidford,
Went to Oakhampton,
Bellstone and now coming to Sticklepath.
And along the way,
Particularly today,
I've been following the Michael energy current.
And there was one place in particular I got to a stone circle.
It's called Nine Stones or I think sometimes it's called Nine Maidens,
Which is ironic because there are more than nine stones there.
And these granite stones are probably no more than two or three foot high.
Maybe I counted 15,
16 of them creating a circle.
And these are ancient landmarks on Dartmoor.
There's many,
Many stone circles and stone rows all about.
And there's no real understanding of why they were built or what they were utilised for.
But the Michael energy flowed directly through this particular stone circle.
So I went and just spent a bit of time there,
Really absorbing the energy.
And I really did feel that energy today.
It was a very beautiful experience.
I felt very honoured and it was a very sacred experience to be part of.
As I've been walking today,
And I've had a lot of time to reflect and think as I walk.
I mean,
It's been a bitterly cold day,
Very biting wind.
I mean,
We do get cold weather in March,
But it's unseasonably cold,
Really.
And up on Dartmoor,
It's very exposed,
Open landscape.
So I was very,
Very cold.
Glad I bought my gloves and sorry I hadn't bought a neck scarf because I was really trying to keep my neck warm against the biting wind.
But as I've been walking,
I've had lots of time to reflect.
And I love that.
That's what I love about walking is I can kind of go into a bit of a reverie and reflect on different ideas.
And one of the questions somebody asked me the other day,
They're having a cup of tea with us,
They're strangers actually.
And they were curious about why I was walking.
And the one of them asked me,
Why are you doing this pilgrimage?
And there are many answers that pop into my mind,
Because I know people in a way want to have a bit of a story or narrative to explain why I'm doing something.
So why am I doing the pilgrimage?
I mean,
I could say it's because I just processing some grief because my dad died last year,
Which is kind of true in a way.
Or it could be that I just felt very drawn to express my felt sense of having my feet on solid ground in a world that feels like it's topsy turvy.
That's kind of partially true as well.
But the actual honest truth is I don't know why.
I just felt strongly drawn to engage in the pilgrimage and it's unfolded that now I am walking it.
And I guess the thing that occurred to me as I was reflecting on my walk today is that it wasn't me,
Liz,
That is doing the pilgrimage.
It's almost like there's the spirit of a pilgrimage that is being walked through me.
It's like there is an energy of the pilgrimage that wants to be expressed.
And it's found me as a human being to actually express that creative form in the world,
The form of walking the pilgrimage.
And,
You know,
I sometimes hear writers or artists say that they're not doing,
They're not creating the painting,
The painting is coming through them or they're not really finding that they're the one that are writing.
It's like the writing is coming through them.
Or people that compose music often say that they don't feel as though they are the creators of the music.
It is as though the creation is coming through them.
And my sense is,
For me,
That's what it feels like for me with the pilgrimage.
The pilgrimage is coming through me.
And I really love that idea that there is this energy in life that is wanting to express itself through all of us in different ways.
And it just so happens that my way at the moment is by walking a pilgrimage.
That's what I'm drawn to engage with and express myself in the world.
And I guess for you,
It will be the same.
There will be expressions of that creative energy that are coming through you.
It might be simple.
It could be in cooking or looking after somebody.
It might be in parenting.
It might be your job.
But there's a sense that it's the creative energy taking form through you.
You are not the one instigating it.
You are the one birthing it.
That's what really struck me today on my pilgrimage.
