Wild meditation

I turned a corner on an oh-so-familiar trail and it suddenly became oh so-unfamiliar, a never-before explored landscape. Moments before, the trail had been an old friend who welcomed and comforted in overwhelming times. I used to know every curve and meandering bend, but not now. My breathing matched the ascents and descents, chanting in a call and response rhythm, leading me into a wild meditation. Each step took me a bit closer to a looming spiritual doorway that I have been ignoring. One last climb and one last tight switchback and a different world opened as my feet stepped through that doorway.

Something I cannot describe changed in me. It is more than a point-of-view, more than an attitude or belief or awareness, more than a shift in understanding, but still indefinable. I turned around and looked at the path behind me, but it too was different, as if I had erased the memory of who I was just a moment before. I stood still wondering if I imagined it all. Perhaps nothing had happened; nothing had changed in or around me. But the path urged me on in words I did not know, the air carried a new song, and the water sounded like a flowing heartbeat. If I lit a fire would it share different secrets in the dark?

I started moving again, up and around and over and down and around again. Everything was still new but not disorienting. One adventure, one way of being was over and without fuss, the next had started. The how would never be clear, and the why was perhaps irrelevant. All that mattered was my choice to treat each step as a sacred dance, a prayer, a mediation, into a wild new beginning.