I’ve decided to start going for walks.
In part because I made a bet with someone at work and also, well because I want to be a bit more fit. I have always gone for a walk whenever I’ve wanted/needed to be alone with my thoughts.
Walking without purpose or destination helps clear the mind. I also like the autumn. It is my favourite season of the year. I like all the autumn colours and the cool, crisp freshness in the air.
It’s hard to explain, but I derive a certain pleasure from walking along, listening to the sounds of autumn leaves rustling in the wind.
Much in the same way that I cannot help but feel a sense of sadness and longing when I look up and see a flock of geese flying by overhead or when I’m sitting out in my boat watching as the morning mist rises off the surface of the lake.
I enjoy just sitting out there, listening to the sound of water lapping against the hull, the neon buzz of dragonflies and songs of birds perched among the reeds, birds you can hear but not always see.
I have even come to listen for that small gurgle on the surface of the water when a trout rises to sip in an insect sitting on the top of the water. On such mornings I have learned to cast my line to the sound rather than the sight of a fish.
Over the past half century or so I have come to realize that there is as much to hear as there is to see in nature, if you only take the time to listen.
Whether walking along a woodland path or sitting out there in the boat, I have seen many a season change. I have witnessed birth and rebirth and the continuing cycle of life. I have come to accept that all things change and that change is inevitable.
There was a time when I would walk quickly through the woods in order to get to a stream where I hoped there might be fish waiting to be caught.
Walking through the woods was but a means of getting from the vehicle to the stream. The less time it took the sooner I could cast my line.
Now, more often than not, I find myself stopping along the way to sit for a few moments on a rock or log, not so much to rest but to simply look and listen to everything around me.
Sometimes, every now and then, when I’m sitting there, listening to the sound of autumn leaves rustling in the wind, when the light is penetrating through the canopy above, and certain things remind me of autumn mornings long, long ago, I find my thought drifting back to those autumn mornings when I went fishing with my father.
I remember our last fishing trip to together. I always will. As I recall, it was in the fall.
It was on those fishing trips that my father instilled in me a love of nature.
Quite early on he impressed upon me the fact that catching fish was but a small part of what fishing is all about – that the whole point of being out there in nature was to experience all the sights and sounds and smells that surround you. I am grateful that he took the time to stop along the way and share with me his appreciation of all the wonders of nature, both great and small.
So now, when I do stop along the trail, so to speak, on my way to the proverbial stream, I will take the time to listen as the wind rustles the leaves.
I’ll sit down and watch the dust particles dancing in the shafts of light that come streaming down through the tree tops above, and, I will definitely pause to appreciate all the many wonders of nature, both great and small.
