Late Night Strolls Through Suburbia

Have you ever decided to take a walk in a suburban neighborhood late at night and realized you should have gone before sundown and avoided walking into the spider webs?  That's such an icky feeling, knowing there is a web on you and not being able to see it or get it off of you. You frantically start rubbing your arms and face just to make sure if there was anything there, it's off now. You get a little upset, perhaps that you didn't see it coming, and you are glad when you are past it and no longer feel it on your skin. That is, until you walk into another spider web.

It was getting a little out of hand for me the other night. I must have walked into 10 different spider webs. Easily. Until finally, I became conscious enough to look for them.

This is when the "light bulb" turned on.  Suddenly, I felt awake. I felt so aware, of everything around me. I had decided to start paying attention to the spider webs, so that I wouldn't walk into them and get agitated anymore. As soon as I started paying attention, I became mindful. I saw every spider web that had been spun in my path and walked under or around it. It was amazing.

If you are not fully aware and present,
you could miss something.

Then, something strange happened. Thoughts started to creep into my mind. I started thinking about how much further I was going to walk before I turned around, and then about what I was going to do when I got home, about whether I should wash my hair tonight or tomorrow.

All of a sudden, I realized I had stopped paying attention, and was no longer looking for the spider webs. As soon as that realization came to play, I stopped dead in my tracks. There, in front of me, about two inches from my nose, was a creepy black spider on a huge web. That was so close!

It was such perfect timing, I got lucky having returned to the state of presence, where I could be aware, right at the moment where one more step forward would have meant a spider on my face. Wow! Needless to say, I was mindful the rest of the way, and the walk in my neighborhood became a journey into a higher consciousness. It was like a walking meditation.

Have you ever experienced that? You should try it. The next time you take a walk (hopefully by day) take it mindfully. Notice the colors of the flowers and vegetation around you, notice any scents or aromas in the air you are breathing, listen to the birds in the trees and the dogs in the yards, feel the warmth of the sun on your face, open up your senses.

You can miss things if you are not present. So keep your oil burning and your lamps lit. It will give light to that which is around you at the present moment, which is the reality and truth of the now. The eternal and timeless gift of the present. Be here now, and enjoy it.