Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott and I'm up on Dartmoor.
Probably you can hear it,
It's rattling with rain.
I've got my hood up and I'm at a slightly different spot than usual.
I've walked a little bit further than I normally do to get up onto the moor and from this vantage point I can see what's called Ash Ridge and there are pockets of blue around me,
Blue sky that is,
But predominantly there's a very ominous grey,
Browny grey cloud that is coming over and I'm expecting a really heavy downpour anytime soon so I'm hoping I can walk smartly home before I get too wet.
And I wanted to pause today to reflect on yesterday's talk that I gave about the pilgrimage.
It was in Dorset and it was lovely.
It was with a group of people that have been to retreats that I've run in the past and we had it as a very easy affair.
People just brought a bit of food for lunch so we had a shared lunch.
There was no charge for it,
We were just kind of gathering and meeting again and I wanted to share and people wanted to share in my experience of walking.
And I talked alongside my husband.
I was mainly talking because I was the one that walked during the pilgrimage and my husband was fantastic helping with support.
He drove the camper van and dropped me off and picked me up and did the washing and the cooking and pretty much everything that enabled me just to be walking,
Reflecting,
Writing and recording as I walked the pilgrimage last year.
If you remember it was 630 miles across England following the Michael and Mary lines.
And one of the questions that came out of this talk was something my husband and I were smiling about because it's a question we've asked ourselves.
And if you imagine it,
My husband and I were experiencing very different things.
He was experiencing the realities of what it is to make life function with food and washing and clearing up and finding a good place that we can settle down for the night.
So he had all these really practical functions that I guess we're very used to in the way that we live.
And my job was just to get up and walk.
Get up and walk and reflect and spend time on a very personal journey following these energy currents and just seeing whether there were things for me to notice and understand and see about myself and about the world that I hadn't really been able to see when I was in the busy busy life of washing,
Cooking and running a household.
And the question that came up or the reflection that came up in the group was,
Gosh,
You know,
What was it like for me when the pilgrimage,
Which was seven weeks long,
What was it like when I came back into the real world?
And the reason my husband and I laughed is because we had a question running between us about who was living in the real world during the pilgrimage.
Was it him doing all the practical things that were necessary in order for me to have a physically comfortable life?
Or was it me walking at two or three miles an hour,
Allowing my mind to settle,
Getting connected with the land,
Feeling a sense of peace,
Feeling confrontation and challenges and being given time and space to allow these things to sink into my soul and to be processed?
Was his the real life?
Was the life I returned to after the pilgrimage the real life?
Or was actually walking the pilgrimage real life?
You know,
Which is the crazy world?
Is it the world that we inhabit in our day-to-day lives,
This world where we're spinning plates and getting things done and setting goals and earning money?
Is that what it's like to be a human being?
Or is it that we've lost something and actually the real world is the world that has fewer distractions?
Is the world where you have a chance to walk,
To stretch out,
To reflect,
To be allowed to process things without the never-ending pull to be doing something constructive or something else?
So today's reflection is just that.
What is the real world?
What is it that you are being called to explore in your world and life?
Is it about getting busy in your life?
Is it about earning money,
More money?
Is it about finding a way to be successful in whatever success means to you?
Or is it that you're being called to slow down,
To look within,
To walk at a different pace of life,
To walk at a pace of life that most other people aren't walking?
Is it that that is really what you're being called to do and it's actually that the real world,
The world of slowness,
Of walking and thinking at the pace of walking?
Is that what it is that we're being called to do?
So just a reflection on what is real.
What is the real life?
Is it the busy world or is it the quiet world?
And maybe it's a mixture of both.
In my life I really missed having that time to reflect and slow down.
It gave me balance for sure.
But I'd be really curious to know what it means for you.
What is the real world?
Where are you drawn to put your attention?
