Pond by Oughtonhead

Two big benefits before even starting the real walking come from doing yoga every day and going in to the outside world whatever the weather. The first has brought renewed flexibility of body and heightened my spirits and the second surprising pleasures amidst rain, frost, snow, thick mud, bare trees and winter sun. Today there is thick mud everywhere I look. It attaches itself and forms a heavy clod on each boot like two inch platforms underfoot. The rain is heavy and continuous under a thick grey cloud squeezing all light out of the day. Under my coat, hood and protective gear I am warm, dry and snug inside right next to the immediate contact of cold, wet, gloomy surrounds. It is important to stop along a path and take in what is around me. I do that on my walk today as I stand beside a pond on Oughtonhead common. The surface is being bombed with droplets of rain. They must be different sizes from the look of the ripple effects formed. Some form big circles that take a while to settle in to the surface. Others are quickly consumed, absorbed and now part of the pond. I look and watch the different patterns as big and small send ripples crashing in to each other with the strong pushing the weak away. The surface of the pond is very much like our minds. Different stimulus hit us and bash in to each other as they are absorbed inside our heads. A smell, a taste, a touch and a sound all landing on the surface and somehow absorbing in to us. Never quite achieving the unity we seek. I think of the pond as our total mind doing its work to reach harmony and a calm flat boundary between above and below. Rain and wind amass their forces wanting waves and disturbance and anything but calm in their game. Most of the work taking place below the surface using its knowledge to oppose the forces sent against it. Just like our unconscious mind doing most of the work for us as we work to survive in this world. Our conscious layer like a spotlight searching the surface of the pond for something that might be important to protect us or meet the needs we have. This pond will not be still today or for many days to come. It will try everything it can to sleep happy, content and flat but only when the wind stops and the rain stays above will it get its chance. I look away from the pond to the path ahead. I am back in the world ready to catch everything disturbing my calm and make my best efforts for the still mind I want. An exciting year ahead about to start in which walks, talks, thoughts, people, places and paths will take me somewhere new.