I love being immersed in nature even though I am smack dab in the middle of the city. I love the protected green spaces in my neighborhood. My favorite is the Neponset River Reservation and Estuary. I make a nice 4-5 mile looped walk part of my daily routine. 

The route I take winds in and along the estuary and river. The path takes me past a little gorge with a waterfall into some beautiful wooded sections that run alongside the trolley tracks. It's a beautiful fusion of nature and city life.

Now that it's spring, I get to see and hear lots of birds and waterfowl while I am out and about and it's so grounding. I love how mother nature teases and tempts me to stop and enjoy the beauty around me.

So often, however, I set out on my walk with the express goal of getting my steps in. Thoughts and ideas swirling in my head, I often whiz by the beauty that surrounds me, except the other day...

I was on the path, focused on getting to the 2.5 mile point which would be my turn around to get in my 5 miles. As a pivoted for my return trek I heard a cacophony of honking in the river. I quickly looked over my shoulder and saw two geese on the water and one goose in particular caught my attention.



I tried watching the goose while I was walking but had to come to a full stop when I became aware of what she was doing. 

You could see the direction of the current clearly on the water's surface and this goose was just floating along with the current - backwards. I was entranced with how the goose just let herself be taken down river by the flow of the water, totally surrendering to the experience.

Her tail feathers leading the way, she floated along, not even looking over her 'shoulder' to see what was coming up next but just trusting the current.

She literally, and I believe figuratively, was going with the flow AND she looked like she was having so much fun too. Then suddenly the other goose started honking loudly in the direction of her partner.

I watch goose #2 paddle out into the river with focused attention, not at all seduced by the freedom of the flow. It looked like she was scolding the carefree goose who, reluctantly began to paddle towards her squawking partner, abandoning her brief but delicious bout of freedom.

I couldn't help but chuckle under my breath and then quickly realized I had messed up my timing for my walk. As I noticed where my thoughts went I realized what a gift the carefree goose had given me.

I mean, if I just want to get steps in, I could go to the gym, or even just walk around my city block, right?! But my soul brings me to the river, brings me to the woods along the river asking to be bathed in the beauty of surround sound nature, to be set free from the cacophony of my hustle and bustle life.

My soul craves the freedom that comes with going with the flow.

And, I do hear her most days (my soul that is) and give her what she needs, it's just that sometimes I get lost in my thoughts and let my ego hijack the trip, efforting when there is no need to effort; resisting the current that surrounds me and consequently sacrificing whatever freedom I could have experienced.

Fortunately mother nature is super astute and knows how to entice me to surrender to the flow and embrace the moment before me. This time it was a goose, other times it's a fingernail moon in a daytime sky or maybe a spontaneous road trip to Maine (more on that later ).

Whatever brings me back to the present is truly a gift that I am always grateful for, even if it takes me a moment or two to notice. What about you?



Take care and care well,

Mary