Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
I'm walking down a quiet driveway towards a farm.
It's a public footpath and it's going to lead me off this driveway into a wooded area in just a second and it's a shaded lane,
Beech trees overhead,
Thick dark canopy of green and the banks of the lane are high,
Probably about 10 foot high with dark green ivy and ferns and brambles scattered around and this is the final day of our camping trip.
We've been camping in our van quite close to home but at a place called Slapton and I've really enjoyed just getting out and about,
Seeing a slightly different part of Devon and going for these walks in areas that I'm not so familiar with and today is,
Well it can be quite simply summarised as trust your inner compass and not your stories and I want to tell you a story of what's happened that had me reflect on this very thing.
So it's about trusting your inner compass,
Don't trust your stories.
On the campsite that we are next to us there is a van with a dog that sits outside very patiently,
It's like a black German Shepherd dog called Toby and Toby is seven years old and my husband and I have watched this dog over the past couple of days fondly because it kind of reminds us of our old dog that recently died,
A big big black dog that we had and also because we've kind of been a bit curious about the owners,
We couldn't quite work out what was going on and this dog just seemed to be sitting outside of the van a lot and they took the dog out for short walks and he had a few toys around him but they never seemed to play with him and they'd go off and leave him and we began to go,
What's happening with this dog?
On one level he seemed really well looked after,
He was well fed,
He had a shiny coat,
He looked well but on the other hand he just didn't seem to be that stimulated and as we began to to question what was going on with this beautiful dog called Toby we started sort of trading stories,
My husband and I,
Of maybe they're not responsible dog owners and what if they don't love their dog like they should and you know we began to think maybe they they need to take their dog out more often and we began to come up with lots of different stories about what was happening to this dog.
I began to go into a bit of a reverie of well you know maybe they're not suitable for this dog and maybe we could adopt this dog,
Maybe I ought to talk to my husband about the possibility of adopting this dog and we'll have another dog and we'll look after him and I started creating all of these stories about this dog that just didn't seem to be taken out on walks.
Within me I knew I needed to do something because I was unsettled with this situation,
It didn't seem right,
It wasn't adding up and I felt a little bit concerned for the dog and it wasn't major concern,
Like I said it looked like it was well looked after but it just wasn't being stimulated enough and I wondered what to do,
Should I speak to them,
Should I have a word with them,
I just wasn't sure what to do and I could feel that I was on a little bit of edge so if I had gone to speak to them I might have said something that came out wrong or came out a bit sharp or didn't really connect very well so I I just held my tongue and I'm glad I did because I was driving back from a little outing,
Got back,
Saw the dog outside the van and I just knew inside me,
Go and offer to take the dog for a walk.
So that's what I did,
I had no angry thoughts about it,
No angry feelings,
I got out my car,
Went over to the van and said I'm just about to go for a walk,
I'd love to take a dog with me,
Is there any chance I could take your dog with me?
And then we had the most wonderful conversation where they explained to me that no their dog was not very well,
It had sprained its leg,
They were only taking it for very short walks,
They weren't playing with it too much because they wanted this injury to heal and so they didn't want me to take it out but they just said thank you very much for offering to take out the dog for a walk and as I spoke with them I realised they adored this dog,
It was well looked after,
All the stories I'd made up were completely untrue and I realised beautifully that I was so glad I had trusted my inner compass and not my stories.
So that's the message today is just trust your inner compass,
Don't trust the stories you tell yourself,
The stories will whip up different scenarios where you'll probably be the hero and somebody else will be the villain,
Do not trust those stories,
Trust your inner compass,
Go and understand what's going on before you jump to conclusions.
So today is all about trusting your inner compass and not your stories.
