The Free Radical

Okay, I admit it. Sometimes I bring a very chatty mind to the woods with me… and sometimes I just let it run wild! It’s kinda funny… ’cause all of the baggage I drag along in my head doesn’t really exist out here. It’s all just a fantasy I can pay attention to… or not. If I follow my thoughts closely, I can completely miss the actual path that I’m on; whole swathes of Forest pass me by unnoticed. And what’s the point of that?

Fortunately (?), Spider has set little reminders along the way in order to bring me back to myself, to the actual moment wherein I exist. I break a few spiderwebs with my face every day! (That’s the main reason I don’t typically walk with my mouth open!)

Bear has been spotted recently among the houses and yards of the Dutch Creek community.

And now I found this sure bear sign on the path by the river. It’s actually fairly rare for any large animals to hang out by the river, especially during high water spring runoff. Dutch Creek is very loud at this time of year, and the animals don’t feel safe awash in the white noise.

This print was up at the swamp a few days ago. I wonder if it’s the same bear, or if we have a few burly residents milling about. Black Bear and I are pretty tight, so either way makes little difference to me. My preference though is to actually interact with the bear… not just the signs of his passing.

And in nearly the same place, there are now hundreds of butterflies remineralizing themselves in the mud, after the ordeal of their profound transformations. Every day as I walk through the swamp there are clouds of butterflies stirred up by my feet.

But do you know what encounter is most conspicuous by virtue of its absence? Mosquito. So far this year I have encountered exactly two mosquitoes. It’s the middle of June; the swamp is swampy… and there’s virtually no mosquitoes!

Where have all the parasites gone? Long time passing…

Seriously, have we forged a new relationship with all the parasites who feed off humanity? Has something drastic happened in the unseen realms that many or most of the common parasites have no basis for manifesting into the physical anymore? I already noticed a reduction last year… Is this just the natural progression? *Fingers crossed.

I guess I’m my own distraction now. If I could just get out of my own way…

Sometimes it takes me awhile to get the message. Four days in a row, in virtually the same spot each time– and nowhere else, I got flowers stuck between the second and third toes of my left foot. (I wear five-fingered shoes.)

Now, if Spirit was attempting to give me a clear message, this would be a really good way to do it. Spirit, who knows me better than my own recalcitrant mind, would know that eventually I would look on a reflexology chart to see what the place between the second and third toe represents in my own Being. As it turns out, it represents my eye– my left eye. The left side of the body, in general, represents the Spirit… so perhaps we could say my Spiritual eye.

The purpose now seems to be to integrate my Spirit more fully into my physical body. But what exactly is this mysterious essence called Spirit? It is that which is being expressed unfettered all around me when I take these walks. Everything I look upon in the Natural world is a unique and kindred expression of Spirit… Bewildering isn’t it?

‘Bewilder’ is my favourite word of all time!

This insistence to look deeper… with a more Spiritual eye was actually pretty obvious. Two days ago I watched Master Red-Tail and the Other Hawk cavorting in an enthusiastic aerial display, ducking in and out of the trees. And before that, it was Eagle who’d come to share insight… insight, hawk-eye, eagle-eye… Do you see? Of course you do… or at least, your Spirit does.