Autumn Walk In The Irish Countryside

You are invited on an imaginary autumn walk in the Irish countryside. Here is your invitation to close your eyes, relax, and imagine a world far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Make your way along a tree-lined path leading to a river walk and enjoy the thoughts that cross your mind in this natural habitat.

Background music: "Relaxation" – by Narek Mirzaei of Music of Wisdom.
Nature Sound effects: Envato Elements.
Photo by dreamypixel on Envato Elements

Transcript

Dear friends,

I want to invite you on an imaginary autumn walk in the Irish countryside.

To prepare for this journey,

Please make yourself comfortable wherever you may be.

You might be seated on a chair or on a cushion at home,

Or you might even be listening to this as you relax in your car.

It goes without saying that you should not listen to this,

Or to any meditation for that matter,

While you are driving,

Or even while you are doing anything that requires your attention.

But subject to that warning,

Just relax.

Close your eyes and take one minute,

Just 60 seconds,

To come into the present moment before our journey begins.

Let the awareness of your breathing help you on your way,

Breathing in the good air that is your life-giving constant companion.

And as you breathe out,

Imagine yourself breathing out any sign of worry or tension.

This is your time,

Your space,

The moment when you can come to yourself and let everything just be.

Welcome back.

Now,

In your mind's eye,

Imagine yourself on a journey into nature.

Picture yourself driving through the winding country roads of Ireland in autumn,

Away from the rush of motorways,

Dual carriageways,

City traffic.

There's a little chill in the air.

It is autumn.

The sky is a pale shade of blue,

The ceiling of blue broken only by an occasional white cloud,

And by the tracks left by some jets passing silently way,

Way above.

The road here is narrow,

Just sufficient for two cars to pass comfortably,

And on either side,

Hedgerows still mostly green.

You come to a clearing where there is space,

Space for car parking in front of buildings at the edge of a football pitch.

There's a mobile stand where,

At weekends,

People stop to have coffee.

But just now,

That little enterprise is closed.

Not that you're looking for coffee just now.

Something like that would be your reward at the end of the walk,

Not at the beginning.

The football pitch and the coffee stand are sitting at the edge of a forest.

You park your car,

And as you step out,

You are quickly reminded of the time of year.

The cool air greets your face,

And you take a second or two to fasten your jacket.

You close the door of your car,

And you make your way to the beginning of a stony path that leads into the forest.

With each step,

You feel and hear the crunch of the small stones beneath your boots.

That sound mixing with the occasional snap of twigs as you make your way along.

The football pitch is to your left.

It's empty just now,

But you can imagine teams training there in the evening.

To your right,

There's the beginning of the forest,

And ahead of you,

Just a little way down the stony track,

The trees welcome you,

To the right and to the left.

From time to time,

As you move along the path,

The trees on either side meet in the middle,

Providing a canopy of leaves,

Still mostly green,

But with some shades of amber and gold,

Reminding you of the time of year.

As you walk along,

An occasional gust of wind sends a few leaves floating gently to the ground.

They fall like golden snowflakes.

Their descent is silent and peaceful.

The scent of pine is in the air.

The forest is fresh and alive,

After an earlier rain shower.

By now,

The football pitch and its buildings,

And the coffee stand,

Are quite a distance behind you.

Each step takes you deeper into the quiet calm of nature,

Far away from the noise of the outside world.

You approach a clearing ahead,

To your left.

Here,

The ground is pine-needle soft underfoot.

In the clearing,

There are a number of wooden picnic tables,

With their attached benches.

Today,

They sit vacant,

Offering respite to any tired or hungry walkers who might pass by.

Next to the clearing,

There's a stream,

And you decide to sit at one of the benches,

And take a rest.

This is an opportunity for you to pay attention to the sounds of nature that surround you.

You easily notice the soft murmur of the nearby stream.

Its waters are disturbed as it passes over the occasional rock.

As you listen to the music of the stream,

Your ears pick up the occasional rustle of leaves.

This is accompanied by the odd creak or groan,

Given off by some nearby old trees swaying slightly in the breeze.

You rest for a minute or two,

To absorb the quietness of this magical place,

Before walking on a little further,

Where a small stone bridge crosses the stream.

At this point,

The path ahead is split in two.

Will you go uphill to the right,

Or will you turn left across the bridge and follow the stream?

As you stop to make your choice,

You are reminded of the poem by Robert Frost,

The Road Less Taken.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both,

And be one traveller.

Long I stood,

And looked down one,

As far as I could,

To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other,

As just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear.

So as for that,

The passing there had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay,

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh,

I kept the first for another day.

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh,

Somewhere ages and ages hence.

Two roads diverged in a wood,

And I,

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

You enjoy a few moments of reverie as you recall this poem.

In your forest today,

The choice left or right will not be life-changing.

You know from having been here before,

That interesting and complicated as the forest is,

Either choice will bring you back to the same place.

But thinking of the poem brings you to a philosophical state of mind.

You think of stages in your life where a number of different options presented themselves.

As these offers came about,

You reflected a little,

Maybe not enough,

And you made your choice.

And that choice has brought you to where you are today.

You can reminisce about what might have been.

But if you do,

Maybe you should reminisce only for a little while.

Because here you are.

The choices have been made.

The past,

For good or bad,

Is just that,

The past.

And the future lies ahead,

Filled with its own special supply of possibility.

You bring yourself back from your daydream,

And you decide to take the path to the left,

The path along the riverbank.

As you walk along,

You become aware of another layer of sound.

This time,

Birdsong.

The dawn chorus has long passed.

This is autumn,

After all.

The voices of the birds are muted.

Now they sing more quietly than in the spring.

But their voices can still be heard.

As you listen,

You notice the call of a robin.

Maybe two robins.

Or you see one of them in a nearby tree.

And coming from within the forest,

You hear the distinctive horse call of the wood pigeon.

Notice how a wood pigeon always ends its call on one note,

Seeming to replace a note that's always missing from the beginning of its call.

Now the sound of the stream,

Combined with the occasional murmur of the forest birds,

Together provide you with a natural symphony of sound.

A symphony which does not require the input of people like you or me.

The forest music plays.

We just have to listen.

As you walk along,

You find another seat,

This time beside the stream.

The stream is still meandering along to your right.

It's time to stop for a moment,

Time to pause,

Notice the stream and just listen.

As you sit beside the stream,

Watching the water flow steadily by,

You notice that the water passing before you is never the same.

Each moment brings fresh water,

Flowing from upstream,

Moving past and continuing on its journey downstream.

The stream is in constant motion,

Ever changing,

The stream is in constant motion,

Ever changing,

Yet it remains a stream.

Its essence is unchanged,

Even though its form is always new.

You begin again to reflect on life and your life.

Just as the water in the stream is constantly moving,

Our lives are always changing.

Each moment,

Each experience,

Each emotion is transient.

The moments of happiness,

The sadness we sometimes feel,

The challenges we face,

All flow past like water.

You are reminded of the words,

This too shall pass,

And yes it will,

Just like the water in the stream.

Nothing stays the same.

The stream teaches us that everything changes.

The water in the stream doesn't hold on to anything.

It flows freely,

Adapting to the landscape,

Moving over and around rocks,

Under branches and through the narrowest of channels,

Never flowing upstream,

Never turning back.

Water simply continues on this journey,

And its journey is a life lesson for us.

We often cling to the past,

Reliving the good times,

Regretting the mistakes.

We want to hold on,

But water teaches us to let things move on.

Even as you reflect on this,

You want this moment to stay the same.

You think of the busyness of your life,

The necessary routine of rising each day,

And taking your part in the activities that help to make this world go round.

And you know that you must return to these activities.

You get up from your seat and you resume your walk in a reflective mood.

From time to time,

It is so important that you remember It is so important that you would step off the treadmill and bring yourself into a place where life is unhurried.

A place where nature teaches us to slow down.

A place where nature reminds us that everything will be completed in its own good time.

As you walk along,

You absentmindedly reach for your phone.

A hard habit to break.

Always looking and checking to see if we have any new notifications or messages.

But nature has come to your aid today.

No signal.

You put your phone back in your pocket and you remind yourself that this is where it should remain a little more often.

You continue your walk by turning to the right,

This time crossing the stream by an old wooden bridge.

You throw a twig into the river on one side and,

Like a child again,

You rush to the other side to see the twig sailing on.

Leaving the bridge,

The path to your right leads you back in the direction of the crossing.

The crossing where you made your decision,

Would you go right or would you go left?

Now you're on rising ground,

Moving away from the stream and walking along a path through the mixed forest.

There are shades of autumn in the air.

The trees are mostly still green,

But occasionally there are some for whom autumn has arrived early.

Among the green canopy of the forest,

There are beautiful shades of gold and orange and brown.

A reminder of how these colours will come to dominate the forest in a little while.

You turn into a small pathway to the left,

Which winds its way up a hill.

The uphill walk is a little more challenging,

But you know there is a reward ahead.

So you press on,

Stopping to take an occasional deep breath.

After a little while,

You reach the top of the hill.

You are relieved to find that there is a wooden bench waiting here for you,

An opportunity for some needed rest.

Opposite the seat,

There's a clear view of the forest lake.

Today,

The lake is like glass,

Reflecting the blue sky as if in a mirror.

In the distance,

The forest trees at the opposite edge of the lake are reflected as a mirror image in the water.

You take out your phone again,

This time to take a photograph of the still scene.

And magically,

There is a gentle ripple appearing across the lake.

You take a photograph,

Pointing only at the lake.

You check to see that you've captured the moment.

You turn the phone upside down.

Nature has given you an abstract memory of the moment.

Now it's time to make tracks for home,

Walking down the winding path that brought you up to the lake view.

You rejoin the track by the river.

And as you walk along,

You give thanks for life,

For this day,

For the gifts of sight and hearing,

For the symphony of the forest,

And for the abstract lake painting which a timely breeze has managed to offer you today.

After a while,

You come back to the split in the forest path.

This is where you made your decision to turn left.

You return along the stony path,

In the direction of the car parking place.

Now you see a group of young people,

Training in the football pitch,

Which is now to your right.

Their shouts and their laughter remind you of the exuberance of youth.

You pray that life will be good for these young people.

That training next to such a beautiful forest will be a reminder to find time to visit the unspoiled places,

These magical locations in which we can still be in nature,

So that our batteries can be recharged.

This return to nature will enable us to play our part in this amazing dance which we call life.

As you reach the parking place,

You notice to your delight that the window of the little coffee hut is open.

Maybe this was done to facilitate the football players.

You get to your car,

Take out your keep cup.

You are on a campaign to reduce the use of single-use containers.

You place your order.

Bliss.

All is well,

And all will be well.

Namaste.

Reviews

Tony, absolutely wonderful! I am in Nova Scotia on vacation with my spouse. Such a wonderful enhancement to this time here. Thank you!

A beautiful and tranquil reverie. Feeling so peaceful now. I look forward to a Winter walk! 😊🙏💛 xx

Lovely. Thank you, Tony. You have a gift for describing visuals. I felt as if I were there. And the road-I had a specific one in mind-a road outside Sligo town leading to the farm where my grandmother grew up. The road is too narrow for 2 cars, yet my cousin flies down it in her car.

What a lovely walk through the forest. (Ireland is on my bucket list).

Lovely! Memories of driving down narrow country roads with hedgerows on both sides. I could almost smell the cool damp air. Thank you so much. Many blessings to you. 🍀

Spent a beautiful half hour in Ireland without leaving my home. What a gift!

Always lovely to sit with you! Thank you for sharing this practice with us this morning. 🙏

So enjoyed this morning’s adventure! I feel refreshed and energized for the day ahead! Thanks for sharing beautiful Ireland…I hope to visit one day! 🙏🏻

Beautiful Tony. Thank you. On holiday with my friend at Dufftown which is not far from Elgin. Holiday cottage. Rain since Sunday . Bit of sunshine today but bitterly cold. Love to you & Fran. 💖🙏🕊

For the days that I cannot go for a walk this is ideal! Thanks Tony

I have loved this guided meditation. A wonderful way to start my day. Thank you so much 🙏🍂🍁

Tony, thank you for the lovely walk in the woods! I love to walk wherever I am, but walking in nature is always the most reassuring, grounding and exciting! Your telling of your thoughtful ramble carries those same inspirations and feelings.
Thank you again for sharing!
Donna

A beautiful walk. Very relaxing, reminding me of the walks I used to take in younger days. Time to put my walking boots back on!🍂🍃🙏

As always, what a beautiful way to start my day Tony thank you so much for that wonderful walk-through and Auto morning. Namaste 🙏

Thanks, Tom, for a lovely walk in the mind. Someday, I hope to be the in person. 🙏😊

So perfect as we transition to yet another autumn and season of life 🙏🏻