Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and well the pilgrimage I'm on is coming to an end.
I've just got three days left.
I've been walking following the energy currents of the Michael and Mary line which start in Cornwall in the southwest of England and finish in Norfolk and I'm in Norfolk at the moment.
This is day 46 and I'm due to finish the day after tomorrow and I'm just pausing on my walk.
I can see Shimpling Church ahead of me.
There's a tower I can see through the tree line with a very pointy sort of spire that's been added on the top.
Almost looks like a bit of a sharpened pencil's been stuck on the top of it.
That's going to be my next stop.
That's where the Mary energy current goes through and today with a bit of rain in the air it's been wet on the ground.
I'm wearing my wellington boots and just sort of the grass is very wet.
There was a bit of rain overnight and earlier this morning it was wet but you know funnily enough ever since I've been walking we were driving in the rain to drop me off but ever since I've been walking it feels damp in the air but it's not wet.
Low grey crowds,
The hedgerows here,
Suddenly just everything seems to be coming into leaf.
I think as soon as the rain hit the ground the trees just slurped up,
Slurped up the water and all the leaves are now absolutely coming out and today is very different from some of the walking I've done.
Yesterday I was quite keen just to do a few miles under my belt maybe in addition to what I'd been walking but in the end my body said no and today I felt I had a very clear message to slow down so that's exactly what I'm doing today.
It's a slightly shorter walk today.
A shorter walk for me at the moment is about 11 miles and it feels absolutely right just to do a shorter walk,
Take it easy,
No rush,
Just be present to whatever is around and one of the things that came to mind when I was reflecting on this sense of slowing down particularly towards the end of the pilgrimage,
I remember seeing a film once about tightrope walkers,
People that walk on tightrope and it looks hugely dangerous doesn't it,
Particularly some of the feats that some of these high wire artists perform and one of the things that's always stuck with me when it was a documentary and I think the interviewer asked the tightrope walker or high wire walker you know isn't it really dangerous when you're up there and he said something along the lines that it's not dangerous when you're up there,
That's not when the danger is.
The danger is the last few feet before you make it off the tightrope.
He said when you're in the middle of walking across the tightrope you are so present,
So present but when you get to the end and your mind whizzes ahead to getting to the end that's when mistakes happen,
That's when you lose your presence,
That's when the accidents can happen and it just reminded me or just came to mind for me as I'm walking this pilgrimage is taking that on board really,
Not that accidents can happen but I don't want to lose this sense of presence and stillness by starting to look ahead to when it's finishing and trying to plan what I'll be doing next and when we'll be leaving to go home and well it's my habitual way of being but the pilgrimage feels like it's just letting me know just slow down,
Even these last few days there's no rush,
Just keep taking one step at a time and you will get there.
So that for me is really what I'm seeing today is don't rush and the time that I'm prone to rush is just before something is about to end and then I start leaping onto what's next in my life and I think I've just been given a really clear message today is to be present all the way up to the end so that's what I'm taking on board today.
