Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.
Well I am back at Totnes.
If you've been following me over the last few days you'll know that I've been on a 10-day hike.
It's called the Southams Trail and it starts in Totnes and it finishes in Totnes.
I've completed this circular trail all around the beautiful countryside and coastline of the Southams with my friend and my sister so it feels like quite an accomplishment a 100 mile 10-day trek.
And today we finished off and we just had a cup of tea and a cake to celebrate and we're back at the car and I'm right beside the River Dart and we've been following the River Dart over the past two days coming from the mouth of the Dart at Dartmouth up to Totnes here.
And today is a reflection on just noticing actually something that was different for me as a companion walking with companions and being part of a walk.
And the thing that was different for me was that usually when I'm on a walk or I'm with people I'm a good organizer.
I like organizing things and I have a little bit of an idea of how things should be and how they should turn out.
And for some reason I realized that that was not what was required on this walk.
My friend and my sister they had different challenges on different days.
I had challenges too and one of the things I realized and this is such a useful thing to realize in life not just when you're on a walk is that when people get lost in unsettled thought and thinking they feel unsettled and their world looks unsettling.
On one particular day on the walk my sister was quite unsettled at the beginning of the day.
She had lots going on at home and she'd left lots of things behind when she came on the walk.
And over the course of the day over the course of the miles that we walked along the coastline she settled.
And at the end of the day I said what was the highlight for you of the day and she said it's the way that I settled.
It's like the walk was healing for me.
Nothing had changed in her world.
All the jobs she needed to do were still there when she got back home but she had settled.
And that's what happens when we get lost in unsettled thinking.
We get lost in stories.
Me,
Everybody,
All of us.
When our minds settle,
When we settle into ourselves,
We settle into our wisdom and intuition then that is what flows through.
It was the same with my friend.
She had problems with her feet blisters and sore feet and yet there were times when she felt unsettled and there were times when she was back laughing and joking again.
She's lost in unsettled thinking.
The world looks unsettled and when she's back centered in herself again she's okay.
She's back in touch with her wisdom and her intuition.
And today then was a reflection that for me I can get unsettled when I plan something.
Like I plan a walk or I plan a route and I have an idea that it should work out a certain way and we should walk at a certain speed and we should do this and we shouldn't do that and we just stop at lunch at this time.
You know I'm a good planner and sometimes that's really handy but it can get in the way if I think that I need to stick to the plan at all costs.
And so for me this walk has been a realization of letting go and acceptance of allowing.
So when my sister said I want to go in this church or my friend said I want to have a snack at this particular point instead of getting into my head of like but if we do that we're going to be 10 minutes delayed and blah blah blah that won't mean we end later.
All of that thinking and thought that I might have gotten settled with just wasn't there.
As people made requests it was like yeah we can do that.
And I think for me it's just a reflection and I just want to share it with you and I'm not telling you that you need to do this.
It was just an observation for me of how it was for me is that I noticed that as I settled in I was settled I was just more accepting and allowing and went with the flow of life.
And today as I sat beside the river Dart the tide was out so you could see the mudflats and there was a tranquility and peace as we sat there having our lunch that was sacred beyond beyond my intellectual mind and it felt that it was a gift and it was a gift that was available because I wasn't lost in my thought and thinking.
I was ready to receive it.
So today is just a reminder that plans are great but equally remember of this idea of acceptance and allowing and letting go that too has a place in life and for me that's something I'm taking away from this walk is what it's like to go with the flow.
Don't forget to join me again tomorrow.
I'm here every day with another five minutes in nature.
