Trusting the Way…

We have had such a wonderful day… My team – Anadi, Tim and Poppy the dog – completed walk 15 of the Sussex Hospices Trail…

The whole of the 200 mile trail, which circumperambulates the 12 hospices in Sussex, was walked today – or run as well in our case –  by 26 teams… Each team was made up of  2 – 8 people…

Leaving Richmond at 6.30 am to get to the start, proved to be our first challenge… I took two wrong turnings en route to find our car… Fortunately Anadi remembered where it was!

We enjoyed empty roads and vistas of Kent and Sussex beauty, appearing to part and spread out either side just for us, as we sped along.

At 8.30 on the dot we were at Burwash bus stop where we’d arranged to meet Tim… Only to find we were two miles apart… Anadi and I were in the wrong bus stop…!

We zoomed into Etchingham railway station at 2 minutes to 9 for our 9 am off to be greeted warmly and enthusiastically by our Friends of Sussex Hospices team members; Felicity, Chantal, Trish and Clive… We all chatted and laughed so much that in the end we didn’t leave until nearly 9.30….

And then we were off…

The famous three and a Poppy dog, larking about on the Sussex trail… The day was sunny and bright, warm sun, blue skies… Sussex glowing, holding us in her verdant lush arms, fields full of sheep, horses, wet green grass, a delight for our feet… But I was also very glad of my Skinners socks for the ouchie stones, the thistles and the thorns….

The whole morning was playtime – but also realtime…We leapt on a big wooden log to imitate gymnasts on a beam; jumped over gates and streams… ( the boys!) The space also leant itself to talking, sharing, playing together, being real together…

Poppy ran around so totally in the here and now; trusting that where she was that very moment was exactly where she was meant to be, no question… She embraced it, she lived each moment, that was all there was to do…

That is all there ever is to do…

What is going to happen hasn’t happened, even though it has. So both positions can remind us to keep where we are.
We can deal with it; whatever is ahead when we stay where we are, we will discover that we are living our lives out and that we have all the resources within us for whatever is required…

Sometimes we might have to uncover and discover new skills and inner strengths, but everything is within us and we have all that we need in any moment… The key is to trust this when as human beings in the vulnerability of living this life, we forget, we tense up and try to manage a future that doesn’t exist…

Three friends and a little Poppy dog, out in the countryside together…

Being together, running together, laughing together…

Trusting the way…