beauty walk

The sun made a lavish display of setting last evening over the flowering fields at Fuller Farm in Scarborough. A dozen of us were gathered to take our time strolling the wooded trails behind the fields. To walk a little, and find a place to sit a while. To talk a little, and find some moments of quiet. Near the spot where it gets muddy and there are boardwalks built into the trail I was near Nancy who kept blowing my mind with simple observations. Like the timelessness of ferns. And the way the fecundity of the forest — like the actual stark smell of it all — makes us prone to receive the full weight of that timelessness. Nancy is one of those people who holds a thousand powerful secrets in each smile.

I could tell you something profound about each member of our small band on last night’s Beauty Walk. They are all wonders. And it’s a wonder to me every time a handful of us gather, the way the trail draws us into itself and shapes us into a temporary community. The laughter, the buzz of conversation, the shared silence, the offering of observations, the generous way of togetherness.

This is a thank you note to my Beauty Walk community. Thank you for the dynamic ways that you show up in pockets of wildness around town. Thank you for the consistent way that you ease my spirit and compel me, after we saunter together, back into the world to live with a little less haste and a little more grace.