Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott where I take you outside and we enjoy nature's wisdom together.
And today I am at a place called Hawk Ridge which is in Somerset.
It's a neighbouring county to where I live and I'm actually up on Exmoor.
So I live near Dartmoor and there's another national park in Somerset called Exmoor and I've been walking today and it's a beautiful day actually.
It's been wonderful,
Blue skies,
Puffy clouds,
A quite cold wind and it's still very muddy underfoot so I've put on my Wellington boots today to make the walk.
And I'm walking with my sister and it's always a joy just to go for a lovely walk with my sister and we've seen a deer,
We've seen buzzards,
We've seen sheep and I haven't seen any lambs which is surprising.
I've seen lambs already this year but the sheep up on Exmoor haven't lambed quite yet and we're just having a really lovely gentle walk.
My sister's just wandered down to take a look at Hawk Ridge Church,
We've been sitting on a bench eating our lunch and we've probably got another eight miles to go before we get back to the car and then make our way back home.
And it's been slow going because of the mud and it's been slow going because we don't know the route and we both got an app on our phone,
It's an app and it's brilliant because it means that we can see where we are and we can see where the public footpaths are.
And one of the real joys about living in Devon and living in England is that the countryside is awash with public footpaths so you can go across different people's land if there's a public footpath because you have a right of way.
And if you've got the map on your phone then you can be absolutely sure that even if the footpath isn't very well used or you get a little bit lost and think am I on the right track here,
The map will show you whether you're on track or not.
But one of the things that we've discovered today is that it's been tough going and there are times where we've had to turn around because it's been too muddy and find another route.
At one point there was a tree that had fallen across the footpath and it was nigh on impossible to go over the tree.
My sister managed to scramble underneath it and I went on a bit more of a circuitous route to avoid having to slide down on my bottom under the tree.
So it just really reminded me a little bit about life really in so much as it can be challenging and it can be slow and it's really good to keep checking you're on the right path.
And I see that for me very much about keep checking within,
Keep checking the wisdom within me to ensure that I am moving in the direction that feels right.
Now I see that there's a real difference between a bit of an urgent thought and maybe a goal I've got to get somewhere and that quiet contented knowingness and okayness that reassures me that I'm going in the right direction.
And sometimes when I'm going in the right direction like today it doesn't mean it's easy.
It means I have to make choices about maybe taking a few steps backwards or going an alternative route or climbing over an obstacle or it might be that it becomes very slow going.
Maybe it's very muddy underfoot or in life maybe I've got a few admin things which feel a bit sticky that I need to do before I can move on with my journey in life in the direction that feels as though I'm being drawn.
And so that's what I want to reflect with you today is first of all keep checking you're on the right path.
Keep looking within and checking you are on the right path.
It's really important.
And if it's a bit tricky and you are on the right path it might be slow going or you might need to take a different route.
So that is what I'm hearing today as I listen to nature's wisdom and it's maybe worth you asking yourself am I on the right path and is it a little bit tricky at the moment and if it is it's okay to go slow or maybe to go a different route but ultimately keep checking within and keep checking that you are on the right path.
