A friend placed a photo on Facebook with a caption “Look at my new front garden!” It was a familiar sight; the Pembrokeshire coastline from Tenby High Street – and it looked as beautiful as ever.
Goscar Rock, Tenby
Her family and her are very fortunate to have miles and miles of beach as their “new front garden”, as is my brother who also lives in the town. Walking along a peaceful, yet well-used, beach with him after he’d finished work made me slightly envious. Fancy being able to lose yourself in a walking meditation, emptying your mind of everything, looking out on an unbroken scene of sand, sea and headland.
It really is quite perfect, especially in warm weather.
I don’t live by the seaside. I live in a town which is part of a great metropolis. I can’t walk out in the evening to this sort of scene, unless I’m prepared to drive for a few hours.
But so what?
We tend to ignore the familiar, dismissing it as just the local park or just that strange-looking building at the end of the street, or even just an old friend. And yet, if you open your eyes and your mind, there is beauty within, and opportunities for anyone to return from work and take a peaceful stroll.
Only we don’t do we?
Why not?
What prevents us?
Apathy, fatigue, nowhere to go?
But there is always somewhere to go; for some of us we can even work and walk – not a walking meditation but a walking conversation that later in the day may return back to a walk in solitude.
For us, this is a really important time, and when we open our minds to all manner of creative thoughts.
Even in the biggest cities in our world there is a haven, an oasis, waiting to be walked, inviting wandering minds and souls to refresh themselves – invigorated by the oneness of being alone, or the togetherness of companionship.
It can be a wonderful world, if we just look beyond the ends of our closed minds and invite possibility.
Today we’re sharing with you a glimpse of our local haven. It’s not a Blue Flag beach or a cultivated park. It’s not the most breath-taking view that is photographed and copied to the far flung corners of the earth.
It’s just an open area of nature where we can think, or talk, or walk in silence.
In itself, for these reasons, it is a wonder that access to such quietness is so readily available.
And is available to all – if we bother to look.
Stop, breathe, relax, move, wander, wonder, empty and embrace.
Please share some of your local havens with us.
CB
Dear Clare, your haven of rest, quietness and stillness is beautiful. Thank you for sharing and for the beautiful reminder to see what beauty is around us each day. Have a good day. Sharon
LikeLike