Maiden voyage of hiking boots

[MysticalGypsi]

I have not purchased new hiking boots since 1988. They have served me well!

[satay]

Tranquility!

Thanks for sharing...

[Agnideva]

Thanks for sharing that beautiful poem with us MG. Do keep telling us about nature. Ancient cultures everywhere had a deep appreciation of the earth, which we're losing now. We are supposed to live in harmony with nature, not in dominion over it. In Hindu Dharma, we fully consider the Earth a sentient being, a mother, a Goddess (Bhudevi). There's even a prayer which begs forgiveness from the Earth for setting foot on Her.

Obeisance to the gracious Goddess of plenitude, O consort of Vishnu!
Who is clad in the seas, with bosom rising as the mountains,
I beg forgiveness for my feet transgressing upon Thy munificence.

OM Shanti,
A.

[sm78]

Your own photo was as good as the one from the web.

Your hiking boots are getting vintage by now.

[mirabai]

Sounds wonderful, and very beautifully described! Thank you for sharing it.

[atanu]

Today, the trails had dried enough to hike and I was lucky enough to have a few hours to get lost in the woods. The air was crisp and cool, but not bitter and biting. The streams were running strong but not at flood level. Maybe just a hint of Spring glimmering in the forest today. After hiking for a couple of miles, I climbed out onto a fallen tree over the stream, and focused on the sunshine dancing on the little waterfall and the gurgling, bubbling sound of the water over the rocks. It reminded me of the notion of the voice of the Divine is like "many waters".

I am always amazed at the transformation over a two hour hike. Nature heals and calms and invites. I believe that is where Native Americans & other similar groups got their innate wisdom. We are too removed from living close to Nature to see the healing connection. Everyone is too rushed and noisy to value and take ownership of what the forest offers.

As I sat on the fallen tree, above me was a huge tree root system exposed by erosion. The intricate, sprawling roots of the ancient tree dangled and stretched over a mini landslide. I noticed this because I occasionally heard a very faint noise that sounded like pebbles tumbling down a hill. I realized eventually it was the very slight, very slow erosion of the hillside. It made me, once again, focus on the constant change in the forest, so many slight changes and shifts constantly in motion.

As I left a bunch of birds were chasing a hawk away and the hawk gave a cry and soared majestically over me. Something ancient lives in the cry of the hawk!

Namaste MG,

Inside me, there is an element, which likes extreme winter, snow, haze, and all that goes with it. My intuitive fascination with western classical music goes with it. I used to be in a north indian city, where during winters I was sometimes awarded with this thrill.

Unlike many of the posters here, however, I have never stayed in cold continents, and at present, I am stationed in a place where summer temperatures exceed fifty degree centigrade. This is also fine, since when I was a kid, I used too shiver imagining Tarzan bare chested in hot jungles of Africa.

As in your majestic hawk, something ancient lives in me as well. It gives me shivers with sudden familiar recollections. Or may be just imagination.

Please continue penning and painting your hikes.

Om Namah Shivayya

[atanu]

Has the hiking stalled?