Chasing Curiosity

The previous shift at work we went on a call that left my mind unsettled. I can’t explain it. It wasn’t the worst call I’ve been on in my career. Far from it. But somehow this one got to me. Perhaps it was the one that cracked open the box that has been so neatly and tightly closed. I don’t know.

When my mind is unsettled, movement and nature have always been my salve. When it had been a couple of days and this call wouldn’t leave me, I knew I had to go to the woods. I made the decision at noon and by five I was pushing the pedals.

Motion, effort, struggle, relief, joy, solitude, silence, beauty. All these things bring calm and peace to me. Sometimes the mind will get worn out with the body and it stops trying to figure it all out; It too finds ease in the beautiful exhaustion.

Then a warm evening beside a creek after the day’s effort; Deer graze nearby trusting my stillness. Night falls and the frogs begin to call to each other – or perhaps to me. As I lay down on the warm earth, the stars above brighten and I think about how they were once the compass for so many, for so long. Have we lost that connection? The connection to the earth and stars guiding us and providing for us. Days and nights like these bring me back to that – nature offering direction and solace.

I return from these adventures with the mind settled, the body gratefully exhausted, and my heart filled with the wild, wondrous beauty of this world.