Falling, Falling, Falling . . . then, WOW!

I’ve decided to take weekends off. No posts either Saturday or Sunday.

Retroactive . . .

 

Meanwhile, I moved through an experience that felt both divinely orchestrated and absurdly specific to the material realm. . .

This was on Saturday. I was nearing the end of a long hike along the main trail at Griffy Lake. On the entire trail, since this is fall, I had to watch closely for rocks, roots, or, worst, what a friend calls “rollers,” i.e., (white?) oak tree seeds, which have already dropped to the ground.

All of these covered by fallen leaves, which, since it has rained, are slightly soggy and hug what’s underneath.

I had been singing my favorite song for this season, “The falling leaves, the autumn leaves, drift by my window . . .” and feeling both strong and lucky to have avoided falling, given the dangers of this season.

Oh, I had stumbled some, but not bad. I rarely fall; due, I assume to my decades long  yoga/chikung/taichi daily practice, plus daily long walks and hikes; yes, I was in a dizzying, celebratory mood, recognizing once again, that my nearly 84-year-old body/mind/soul/spirit was not only doing very well, but spectacularly so.

Okay. I’m hiking along, with full-throated singing, when all of a sudden, my booted right foot slipped on whatever was underneath leaves and my body went crashing forward, for probably two seconds, though it felt like forever . . . all the coordinated internal systems of my entire body suddenly called into full-on emergency action to correct the sudden crisis.

The experience reminded me of near-crashes in cars, propelled into the presence that holds the time/space frame we normally operate within, while something takes over the wheel to avoid danger.

So yes, on Saturday, I stumbled forward, one stomp after another, body totally alerted to extreme danger, at first falling falling, and then rising rising, until finally the situation was corrected. Probably six stomps in all.

An extraordinary occasion.

Grateful.

And astonished that my body could correct itself so thoroughly and precisely.

My body is part and parcel of the natural world. Of the natural world on Saturday that surrounded me in the woods. I, my spirit, is fortunate to be experiencing aliveness in this manner. Thank you, body, trees, the path, the stumble, the correction. . .