The women gather near the nature center at the Houston Arboretum. Some greet each other as old friends, and some are first timers, like my friend Lisa that I unwittingly enticed into this. Lisa and I had already been at the arboretum for close to an hour looking for birds, and she agreed to meet up with this planned group mindfulness hike with the Houston Women’s Hiking Group, despite the fact that I had not explained to much about what was going to happen from here.
What did happen is that this group of women proceeded to form a loose circle in a field of soft, perfect grass in the gentle sun of the morning. There was an invitation to take off our shoes to ground ourselves with the earth. We went around the circle and shared our intentions for the morning. Our leader Bridgette asked the person to share a gesture that represented their intention, and we each copied each other’s movements. After this, we took deep breaths and felt our connection with the ground. Bridgette led us in Dragon and Tiger Qi Gong, a series of movements used in medical qi gong that is believed to have healing benefits. The movements simulated the movement of positive energy from the earth up through and around the body, a flow of energy through the middle, the release of negative energy and an offering of positive energy up to the sky.
After this, shoes were put back on, and we began the mindfulness part of the hike. She asked us to spend the time in observation and reflection and reduce verbal communication, or at least be respectful of others who were observing quiet time in the woods. She set an expectation that at the end of the hike, she was going to ask us to tell her something we had observed, which helped us to keep our eyes open for that one most treasured observation to share with the group.
We started out walking through a garden area with murals on the surrounding walls. One of the murals depicted a butterfly feeding on a purple flower, much like the purple flower I had visualized in my deep-end reflections recently. She also asked the new people to make a joyful noise on a flower-drum sound experience. Beautiful white and purple flowers lined our path. We also all stopped to admire an unusual pine tree that had struggled, potentially during this summer’s storms, and bent over but did not break. This tree captured the imagination of many in our group as a symbol of resiliency.
When we got to the pond, we sat down for Bridgette to lead us in a ten-minute guided meditation. Before the hike began, she had introduced the concept of mycorrhizal networks, the “wood wide web” that connects trees and fungi in a way that allows them to communicate and share resources with each other. In this meditation, she encouraged us to ask for an invitation to allow our “roots” to come out of our bottoms (metaphorically) and connect to this network. She had also let us know that trains would come by during our meditation, and we were to try not to let that bother us, but instead concentrate on allowing any negative thoughts to leave our bodies and imagine them getting on those trains and being carried away.
Lisa and I had chosen to sit on a bench instead of the ground, and we shared later that we were having a similar experience during this time. We were having a hard time hearing Bridgette and although we both wanted to have our eyes closed as she asked and be inside ourselves, the outside world itself was so beautiful that we didn’t want to take our eyes off of it. There were so many dragonflies circling the pond, and emerald lily pads sparkling in the sun. A small group of watercolor painters had arranged themselves in various positions around the pond, inspired by the view themselves. Even the body positions and movements of the other women on the hike were fascinating to me.
Despite this visual observation, I was also feeling connected through my roots to the network below the ground, and also felt the cool breeze in my face and a certain stillness in my soul. Through this stillness, my doubts and insecurities were calm or perhaps they left on that train. I was left with a simple message in my heart. I am enough.
We thanked the earth for sharing with us and withdrew our roots in gratitude. She also asked us to think about people in our life that we love, and send our feelings of love and goodwill to them. I thought about my little group of friends, our “bonded pentagram”, and sent them love and goodwill. We also straightened up and allowed our minds to connect with the higher world. As above, so below.
When we were preparing to leave our seats, I noticed two little oval shaped orange-brown natural objects by my feet. I picked them up and gave one to Lisa and kept one for myself as a reminder of our experience. She referred to it as a “mango” and I thought of it as a baby acorn. I am not sure exactly what it is, but when I see it, it will remind me of that feeling of peace that I left with this morning.
After this, we walked around the meadow. I had just been in this same area last weekend with my sister and found myself again fascinated by the purple rod-shaped flowers that were in the meadow and also were found by the wetland areas. Google Lens identified these flowers today as Prairie or Dense Blazing Star. That name struck me as representing the women on this journey. We are all dense blazing stars. I felt another message inside. I am powerful.
As we walked, I reached out to brush all the plants with my fingers, admiring the softness or coolness of their touch, feeling connected to them and grateful for their acceptance of us sharing their world. We came upon a family in a fork in the path, mother pushing a stroller and dad herding the two small children along the path. Bridgette asked them if they were going in the direction from which we came, and the mother indicated yes. “Oh good, I wanted to let you know there is magic that way. It’s good magic, but magic nonetheless”. The mother said, “Oh, did you hear that? That sounds fantastic!” to her children.
The magic, though, I think, was not so much in the place but in the space we had created. We were the magic, we had formed it and perhaps we had left it for others to find, or maybe we were taking it with us. Maybe the mother would find her own magic, and perhaps just by Bridgette putting that thought into her head, she would know to look for it. Perhaps all that is needed for magic is for us to be open to the experience of it. I am magical.
This hike did not start out as our intention for our experience this morning. Lisa and I had actually agreed to meet at this park yesterday to look for a rare bird, the black whiskered vireo, that had been spotted at this park over last week. However, I had gotten halfway to the park yesterday, and a dreary grey sky had erupted in a gentle rain and thick fog. I had called Lisa, realizing we were probably not going to be able to see any birds, and we ended up going to breakfast instead.
On this morning, I had originally planned to go to Galveston for a sound bath on the beach, but we had decided to try one more time for look for that vireo before the opportunity passed. As it turned out, that vireo might be long gone – it hasn’t been logged on EBird for six days. Also, Lisa had forgotten to bring her binoculars, so we weren’t really set up for success on this adventure. Despite this, we did have a magical morning. Before the mindfulness hike, we had spent about 45 minutes exploring the ravine trail. A small flock of scaly breasted munia had appeared in the bushes next to us on the path, clearly seen with the naked eye. A yellow crowned night heron had appeared on a bridge railing just a few feet from us, allowing us the chance to admire him up close before he flew off again. I had just happened to notice that the hiking group had posted this hike, and she said yes to the experience. If we had been able to make to the park yesterday as planned, we would have missed this experience altogether. We agreed that although we didn’t plan it this way, this hike turned out to be exactly what we needed.
At the end of this hike, we gathered around little logs in a half circle and shared our one special observation, along with a gesture of what it represented to us that we again all imitated for each woman’s invention. I shared the beauty of the dragonflies flying over the water, which represents looking below the surface for the deeper meaning. I truly felt that this physical journey spoke to the deeper spiritual journey that I have been on. Dragonflies can also represent change, maturity and self-realization, which have all been steps in the path I have been on lately. Many of the women expressed thoughts of self-love, appreciation and gratitude for the group and the experience. There were many gestures connected to the heart chakra. The overall experience seemed connected to the root chakra, though, and left us grounded. We all walked away with feelings of peace and goodwill, feelings I hope will last throughout the week and the feeling of which I will continue to seek out in further magical experiences.
