Episode 144 - If you go down to the woods today...

I like forests. There’s something about them. They’re magical, and secretive and full of adventure. Yet also full of peace and tranquillity. Little worlds of their own far away from everything else. Every day on my way to work I walk through a small wood. The path never takes you more than 50 meters away from the streets and the houses beyond, and yet in that wood I could be anywhere. All I can see is trees. Trees to as far as the eye can see, which isn’t very far. And beyond what I can see could be anything. I guess this is part of the magic of forests, you can see such a short distance ahead, that you’re forced to enjoy what is right in front of you and can only imagine what is ahead.

As I walked through the little wood this week, my mind took me to another forest that I had been to. During my time in Papua New Guinea I went for a hike through the rain forest, where the forest literally went on for miles in all directions and there was very little to be found other than trees and wildlife. Yet even then it felt like around each corner could be anything, even maybe a café and a car park. There were no roads, so of course there wasn’t, but it felt like there could be somehow.

Whilst I was on that walk I got lost. I couldn’t have been inadvertently walking off the trail for more than a minute, but even then, once I tried to find it, I couldn’t. It seemed to have completely disappeared. The more I looked the more lost I seemed to get, to the point that I had no idea which direction to begin walking in. I’ll be honest, it was terrifying. But I wasn’t really lost. Don’t get me wrong, I had no idea where I was (or where I was going). Like not even a clue. But my guide knew exactly where I was. In fact, unbeknown to me, he was bemusedly watching me from the path, and as soon as I eventually gave up and called out hopelessly into the shadows, he called out my name and brought me back to where I should have been. 

When I started writing this I intended saying that life is sometimes like walking through a forest, but as I’m writing this I’m starting to think that life is always like walking through a forest. Even when we think we can see far ahead and know where the path is taking us, we can never really be sure what’s around the corner and it can be all too easy to loose the trail. That can be a terrifying (especially when you’re at a point when you have lost way forward). But the same thing that makes it terrifying, is also what makes it exciting and beautiful and full of wonder. But when we take our eyes off what we can see and focus on what we can’t then we loose all of that. And it’s natural to worry about what might be around the corner or about getting lost, but when you have a good guide, you really don’t need to, you can just enjoy the journey!