Momful Mindfulness

Hiking with my daughter

John Bryan State Park is a 752-acre park that includes a National Natural Landmark, Clifton Gorge, rock climbing, rappelling, camping, and hiking.  The park this time of year is beautiful and full of life.  Lush green trees and happy birds accompanied my daughter and I during our hike.  The temperature that day was around 78 degrees and felt around 74-75-ish in the shade so it was a beautiful day for a hike.  At first, my daughter was not at all convinced of the adventure and protested very loudly.

Once out there though, she looked around, started walking and quickly began pointing and calling out things here and there she found interesting.  At that, I sighed a breath of relief.  I love hiking and I so want my children to enjoy it as well.  At the same time, I don’t want to force them in any one direction, so when I made the suggestion and my daughter protested at first, the knot in my stomach clenched.  Once she showed interest in our outing, the tension in my stomach released and I knew we would enjoy our time out (I wouldn’t have to convince her the whole time how amazing this adventure really is…).

My goal was to try and introduce Nature as the Ultimate Meditation.  Meaning, Mother Nature is the best place to relieve stress.  As part of my practice, I give my stress to Nature.  She takes it, gladly, and transforms that stress into love in return.  Hiking is one of the ways I’m trying to pass that method onto my children.  

There was this moment by the river where my daughter was busy collecting rocks and discovering shells that hit me.  I was able to just observe her without disturbing her play.  She’s getting to the age where being cool does not include me anymore and so these moments are all the more precious to me.  When one crosses my path, I pause, observe everything I can, as much as I can.  Take in all the surroundings, focus on as many and as much of my senses as I can during each moment.  The senses can be very meditative and broadening my focus to include as many senses as available.  I oversaturate my memory with as many details as possible so I can remember as much as possible for as long as possible.  

How do I open the senses?  I focus on the individual faculties and examine the input results.  I’ll later discuss how I then unpack all of that information in later posts.  This is a process that was consuming me at first.  The information I was receiving was very overwhelming and I didn’t understand everything that was happening at first.  It’s a hyperawareness that doesn’t spark the flight, fight, fawn response but instead allows me to examine the scene with an artist’s eye.  The art of this process is also part of my meditation practice.

My daughter actually thanked me at the end of the trip and said she had a good time!  While we were hiking back to the trailhead, my daughter shouted with delight, “Mom!  There’s a blue dragonfly!  I saw a green one by the water earlier!  They look like jewels!”  I paused for a moment and took everything in.  This was a mindful moment for me.  

The sound of her joy when she described her discovery echoed throughout my heart.  She loved what she was experiencing and I was loving her love for nature.  I told her “how wonderful” it was she found such beauty around her.  The rest of our walk back was hand and hand looking around, admiring the space we had created for one another.  I felt the bond grow between us and I took in everything I could to savor each step, each breath, each moment.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  May these words bring serenity to all.  ~Namaste~