The Ukelele Walker

As I was on my return leg of my seven mile walk today I passed a young woman going in the opposite direction singing and playing a ukelele . I have seen some sights walking but never anyone walking , singing , and strumming away . I was curious so I said hello and asked her if she did this often . " Yes" , she said as she paused her singing and playing . She was a singer songwriter and she offered that her guitar was too big to walk with and she didn't really want to get it out in the humidity . The ukelele worked fine and the walking gave her a chance to practice her songs in nature . I was still curious so she played and sang a bit of a tune she was working on . How fantastic I thought . Not only was she walking but she was doing something else which obviously gave her pleasure , a true natural multitasking experience ! I conjured up other possibilities for multitasking walking , juggling , playing the harmonica , practicing sign language , rehearsing a part in a play , or perhaps a speech one is preparing for . It is a good thing to see people walking and doing other things at the same time . We as a society don't walk anymore much anywhere . We whine about the heat when it is hot , the cold when it is winter , and drive our cars relentsly toward oblivion . When we can't find a convienient parking space causing us to actually walk a block or two we complain again . A friend told me today Oprah ran a show just yesterday on what would happen if a family gave up all the modern items we take for granted . The kids had to walk to school , the TV was disconnected , cell phones and other electronic devices were put away , and fast as well as processed food was jetisoned . The result was amazing . The family actually started talking to one another . They shared in food preparation since meals had to be made from scratch , and everyone found reading fun and walking or biking was not such a bad mode of transportation after all . Devine nature is just waiting for you so get out your ukelele and walk .

Don't Let the Moss Collect on Your Shoes

Yesterday morning we had huge storms coming in which had formed a few miles out in The Gulf . The wind howled , the rain pounded , and the thunder cascaded like booming echos through time . Today as I began my walk I was rewarded by bright sunshine and the pleasures of rain cooled air . Too , the air had dried out so the usually oppressive humidity was gone . My well worn path had dried also but I noticed the hanging moss was still holding the previous day's moisture loosening tiny droplets that fell intermitantly on my head . My route has a couple of opportunities to divert into the woods . Two are old fire roads which meander through the palmetto scrub and oak hammocks . The other is a nature trail winding its way through the woods cutting back eventually to the main path . How fanciful I thought . Perhaps I should take one of the old fire roads and see where it leads . Entering the woods I came upon a divergence . Which path to take , I pondered ? Suddenly , my mind recollected Robert Frost's famous poem , Road Less Traveled .

Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler , long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though 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 onto way
I doubted 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 took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference .

So , I did place my feet on the path less traveled by . The morning sun had not penetrated the woods yet and the taller grasses on my less trodden path licked and wetted my legs as I strode farther into the woods . The sights were alluring and the smells seminal . Why hadn't I trod this path before ? I knew it was there . I had not taken the time or forethought to choose this path . In a large sense I had been traveling a less worn path by beginning my walking journey almost three years ago . But , I must have been ready to try a divergent path The Devine had provided me . I had to choose though . We have many paths placed before us by God , some worn by ages of footprints , others not chosen for whatever reason , grown over with the weeds of time . Why do we not choose these overgrown paths ? Fear and the fact it is easy to walk the paths of the ages . We know where these paths go . We are insured of a start and a finish . We do this in our work , our relationships , and our everyday lives . It is why our chosen vocations become tedium , our relationships predictably fragile , and our lives monotonous . God did not put us here to waller in predictable misery . He placed us here to rejoice in His Divine creation and choose paths less worn . If we refuse to move we refuse to choose . Do not let the moss collect on your shoes .

The Fish at the Edge of the Lake

Walking past the four lakes on my seven mile walk this time of year is constantly bringing surprising sights . As the summer rains fill the lakes to overflowing they teem with all sorts of birds and fish . One of the smaller lakes is particuarly fasinating . As the lake rises to the edge of the grass , the bass come right up to the where the water meets the grass . I always pause for a few moments to observe the show . The small bass will come up to the edge and turn their fishy bodies almost sideways and stick their snouts out of the water to catch the insects which hover on the water's surface near the grass bank . Satisfying their hunger they opt for deeper and safer water . It amazes me to watch these fish we consider to be low on the intelligence scale figure a way to almost slither up the bank risking getting stuck to obtain breakfast . How curious I have always thought . A far cry from we humans . We tend to stay in our air conditioned environments whether house , car or grocery store . We complain how difficult life has become allowing negative thoughts and vibes to control our every waking moment . " Life is so stressful " , someone recently remarked to me . Why ? I wondered . We have all the modern amenities , electronics , gadgets , convieniences and conveyances . When our cell phone can't find service we are irritated and talk to it as if it were someone who has been rude to us . When our laptop crashes we curse and threaten to throw it out with Monday's trash . We race in our cars to the next red light and get angry if someone slows our progress so we can simply sit there and fumble with our hand held devices . But what of the fish ? Are they stressed out ? No , they seem to enjoy turning and squirming to obtain a meal only to go back to deeper and safer water . What if the bass stayed in deeper water and refused to venture forth to the shallows ? Surely they would starve . We too are starving not in a physical sense but in a spiritual way . We are caught up in our own little worlds refusing to strike out and explore our spiritual selves . We are indeed starving spiritually . We may even attend church or synagogue yet we have not fed ourselves spiritually . Perhaps we need to venture forth to the edge and be willing to turn our spiritual selves this way and that so we too might be able to feed ourselves before we go back to safer and deeper water . I have noticed some people get nervous even talking about spirituality . Fear of the unknown is a very powerful force in our lives . Fear mongering is a disease in our society . Just watch the news and you will be convinced you are the next target of the latest fear story . Watch the news , then breathe and go and watch the fish at the edge of the lake .

Breath of Heaven

I am convinced one of our created problems we have as a society is we don't know how to breathe . We are constantly bombarded by the junk we put in our bodies , stresses of living , notice I didn't say life , the pollutants we take in to our lungs whether chemicals and particulate matter or second hand smoke . Yet , we don't know how to breathe . Breathing is simply a gift of the Divine given to us to clear our minds and bodies of unwanted junk . How do we rid our lungs of unwanted junk ? Easy . Breathe . You can do Divine breathing standing up , lying down , or walking . Start by breathing deeply but do so sucking in your stomach , fill your lungs slowly and then purse your lips and let it out allowing your stomach to relax out as you exhale . Repeat this process ten times and do it several times a day . Start with a morning breathing session and end the day with the same . It also helps to concentrate on a fixed object or use an Om which can be a hum or really any utterance or none at all . Clear your mind by placing your thoughts in what I like to call the "out basket" . Affirm them , then , as you exhale allow those thoughts to escape into the air visualizing them floating away into space . Remember God breathed life into us and gave us this wonderful gift of breath . I like to call it the breath of Heaven . On a recent walk the early morning was giving way to storms coming in from The Gulf . I was about to take my usual route around a large lake I love . Approaching the lake I pass through an over hanging oak hammock which creates a tunnel . As I made my way through this oak tunnel I could see the rain was pounding the lake surface hitting the surface with a force great enough to make it look as though the drops were shooting backwards to the air above . Remarkably , although I was a mere 50 yards or so from the lake it was not even raining in the oak tunnel yet . I continued and exited the oak overhang and entered the rain passing into it as if it were a curtain . Right before I entered the rain wall I stopped and began to breathe . Deep were my breaths , pulling in The Divine rain cooled air . I placed myself in a trance like state , stepped forward and entered the rain wall . By the time I walked to the other side of the lake , about three quarters of a mile the rain had stopped . I looked back . Rain was still falling over the lake and what a sight it was .

Day by Day , Seek the Devine

Dr . Wayne Dyer has said often in his books and lectures , " always aspire to the devine " . I don't necessarily follow Dr . Dyer 's works but what he says here is worth noting . Our society is so fast paced it has become cliche to even mention it . We have so effectively shut off anything having to do with the Devine we have become numb to it . It is as if we have some sort of shut off valve for the Devine , yet , everything around us , in us , and about us is Devine . To stop aspiring to the Devine is truly a modern tragedy . This is why walking and breathing is so important for us if we are going to reconnect or turn on that Devine valve we have shut off . Even what we put in our bodies is part of the Devine , then why do we put such junk in ourselves . Heart disease , high blood pressure , and diabetes is on the rise because we refuse to seek the Devine in the foods we eat . As you walk and breathe , look at nature , take it in , breathe again , you are part of this nature . Our place in nature is , well , natural . But again , we take ourselves out of the Devine by not walking , sweating , breathing or eating right . The other morning I rose earlier than usual . I wanted to see the etheral mists hovering over the lakes I walk past . As I rounded a corner , I was struck by the sight of early morning light casting beams through the trees . I stopped , then continued until I came to the first beam of filtered light . I paused for a few moments and let the beam engulf me . I could feel the radiance as the light surrounded me . I was truly one with God . You think God was trying to tell me something ? I certainly felt his hand on my shoulder . I walked on and got halfway past the big lake on my walk . I paused again and gazed out onto one of the most surreal sights of my life . The mist appeared as if it were coming out of the woods , coming across my path , and slowly moving its way to the other side of the lake . I walked on and as I entered the mist my walking motion pushed the mist away like a curtain . How appropriate . We pull the curtain on God and the Devine everyday . We must conciously seek to keep whatever keeps us from God away from our human desire to be with Him because we are of Him . I walked on through the mist and finally on the north side of the lake , I looked back and saw the mist had engulfed most of the lake . One of my most memorable walks . But if I had not started walking two years ago I would not have heard God speaking to me that day . You must begin yourself . Seek the Devine , walk , breathe , and eat what your body wants and needs not what the latest commercial says you should .