Finding that peace, in the midst, of the messiness of the, external environments, with the outbreaks, and everything that’s, going on, this woman found her “place” to meditate all right! Translated…
In June, as the outbreaks are hitting hard, I’d, shut down my bookstore from the outside, but we’d still gone in there every day; to feed the cats, to clean up the shopfront, to sell off the books from online, to collect the books we received, mealtime, head home, the same cycle. All of these proceedings, with the needed mask-wearing, spraying the alcohol constantly, temperature checks, and, records of where we’d been. The days were, too anxious and nervous as they passed, but, we’d needed, especially, to find that new sense of tempo to life, as we try to prevent the outbreaks from breaking out, otherwise, we would all, be, stuffed to death.
I’d started exercising again—by trekking. The day I’d, found this old habit back, it was like discovering money on the ground when I am walking down the streets, I’d, decided, to buy a Haagen-Dazs mini-cup of ice cream, I’d, immediately, opened up one serving on that bench to devour it, it’d tasted, so sweet, so cool. After that very first day of trekking, I’d thought, so long as the rain doesn’t come, not during the high hours of traffic and away from the crowds, I shall continue to, exercise by walking regularly then.
There were the checkerboard-like country paths where I live, so long as I don’t get into a dead-end, I’m usually able to find my way out, the human body was like a set up GPS, sending me toward the directions of the mountains (the Central Mountain Ranges), with the oceans behind me, there’s no chances of, getting lost. Putting my mask on, toss my keys in my pocket, leaving my smartphone behind, and I’m, off.
Walking on the path at night, there was that feel of I’m waiting for the movies to start in the theatres, the lights dimmed down, with the screen lit up, and everywhere around the screen, dark, and my sight was temporarily, lost, that utter, darkness that surrounded me. And now, other than my eyes, all the other senses, nose, my skin, the “messages” they can detect, became ever the more in-tune. If you have a friend who runs out into the wild, or maybe, it doesn’t require that you breath in through your skin like the frogs do, or like how the snakes, sense their preys with their tongues, but, you’d, opened up all other senses beside your eyes, and “experience” the world like the animals or plants would.
What does it smell like outside? What do frogs that barked like dogs sound like? How do those insects use their wings, or their thorax to make the calls; the night hawks that made the “tweet-tweet-tweet” calls from February to November of every year, how did they “chase” out that season of reproduction.
like this…
The paths in the countryside may not be as full of complexity of nature’s gifts, but, the quietness, the silence of the night, isn’t, as we’d, imagined. The sounds of the nights, are busier and multivariate than the days’, which caused me to get even busier as I’d, trekked on. After several days, I started being able to, I can then, “remember” the ways with sounds, to know where I’d, walked to: hearing the crisps of the water flowing, I can then, tell which section of the ditches have the faster flowing water, which one’s, slower; the barking of Günther’s Amoy Frog sounded like dogs, other than the water paddies, there must be, also, a pond nearby, mostly, close to the private properties or in the park. While, a bit far off, the cats, in the dimming light, all became, the shadows of, the nights.
From a “philosophical” standpoint to think about trekking, the speed of flow of the water in the ditches, the calls of the frogs, the hawks, to me, this is similar to the writer, Frédéric Gros who wrote: the lines of the rocks, the ups and downs on the plains, along with the outlines of the horizons, they showed that “strong resistance”, to block out all the gossips of our days, so trekking became, simply, trekking. On this noisy period of time we encounter every day, return ourselves into the routines of trekking, it may be, something wonderful. At least, in the moments that we’re moving, we get to, have that, tiny space, that spectrum of time, that belonged to, only, our, selves.
And so, walking is not just for the sake of exercise, staying healthy, staying fit for this person anymore, it’s also, a way, she, meditates, to get away, from the noises of the world, and we all need that these days, especially with the outbreaks and everything that’s currently going on right now.