Speyside Way - part 1 - Day 6 of 6 - complete! - Part 1
April 26 - Wednesday. AND Happy Birthday to Judy and Scott Malcolm! I walked from Fochabers to Buckie, official estimate 10 miles, my iPhone says 12.4. I have completed a total of 254 miles (by official estimates) in the last three weeks. My iPhone says 309 miles (that includes walking I did on rest days, extra walks to restaurants, getting lost or losing mittens and backtracking - you get the picture. )
I was very moved by the presence of the river and continued to fantasize about more walks along rivers - maybe one river for each major continent of our world. Walking along each river to where it pours itself into the sea - flows out into something larger than itself. A meditation on my name and on my stage of life.
As we started to approach the place where it would flow into the North Sea i realized the trail would not take me to the actual place of meeting. So I hiked across a lot of big loose stones to get there. It was a hard walk and not all that exciting when I got there. Kind of “okay,” shrug, and hike back. But it occurred to me that for the river - the one within me as well - it was a simple and natural continuation of the flow to pour itself into the sea. But for walking-talking conscious me it will be a struggle like walking over all those big unstable stones.
So that’s it. The river flowed into the sea. End part 1, to be continued in part 2.
Today started out sunny and stayed that way. I guess our whisky-drinking pranksters got the idea that they would have to do something different to surprise us. No back and forth today just sunny (a few brief interludes of going behind clouds) and blue sky. I loved the parts of the walk where I could see the river. The river seemed to be flowing fast and enthusiastically and I imagined asking her if she wasn’t a little bit scared about flowing into the ocean. The question didn’t even make sense to her. It was just where she happened to be flowing. But for me it was a metaphor for death - pouring myself out of this individual River I have been into the big ocean of all-being. As I walked beside the river I thought about how for my body and the flow of blood and life in me this journey to the sea is no big deal. But for the pedestrian part - the walker, the talker/blogger - it is a very big deal to flow from individual being into the sea.
I was very moved by the presence of the river and continued to fantasize about more walks along rivers - maybe one river for each major continent of our world. Walking along each river to where it pours itself into the sea - flows out into something larger than itself. A meditation on my name and on my stage of life.
I found the river’s presence beautiful.
As we started to approach the place where it would flow into the North Sea i realized the trail would not take me to the actual place of meeting. So I hiked across a lot of big loose stones to get there. It was a hard walk and not all that exciting when I got there. Kind of “okay,” shrug, and hike back. But it occurred to me that for the river - the one within me as well - it was a simple and natural continuation of the flow to pour itself into the sea. But for walking-talking conscious me it will be a struggle like walking over all those big unstable stones.
So that’s it. The river flowed into the sea. End part 1, to be continued in part 2.
Oh, I love that image, River, for life and pouring out into the sea. I love that you figured out you could leave the official path on purpose to find the sea - and the way that finding it to be no big deal resonates with the cell-eye view of the process. - Nancy
ReplyDeleteAh Nancy. It’s so funny now that I am immersed in my Glasgow weekend and all the LIFE around me - dogs, cats, children, young parents, the noise and bustle of city life - how faraway the river pouring into the ocean seems! Thank you for walking with me and calling me back to this peaceful moment. 💕
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