Imagine your way through the good route / and also the other route.
© 2005 Paul Gibson
consider the season in the spring, pack sandals for water crossings in the fall, a space blanket for the unplanned night out
consider the route imagine your way through the good route and also the other route, the less preferred, the one you’ll need when the first proves impassable
consider what to carry in your head don’t listen to sappy music before setting off, the sappier the music the more you will resent your own brain don’t worry about what to do with your head your head won’t work after some hours on the trail
consider what you’ll pass through know your trees, your ferns, your mushrooms, know your wild flowers, both the garish and the shy, know the birds by their calls, and distinguish the chickadee from the white-throat sparrow mind the oven bird take joy in the winter wren, your most tireless companion
and be ready, with the first step, to give up control and let the journey unfold on its own, as it most certainly will.
let its accidents become opportunities, let its challenges become triumphs, let it enter your heart and inhabit you, let it sanctify you, let you and the journey and nature be one, as you most certainly are.
This article is reprinted with permission from Falling into the Sky: A Meditation Anthology, ed. by Abhi Janamanchi and Abhimanyu Janamanchi (Skinner House Books, 2013).
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