Beckoning Trails (with music by Chad Crouch)

An auditory dive into an enchanted forest

Alexander

Oct 02, 2024

Transcript

Hey,

I wrote this week’s post while listening to soothing, ambient music created by

Chad Crouch

. Chad records nature walks, and then makes his own music to it (check him out at

Soundwalk

). It realized how much it had influenced my writing, so - with Chad ’s permission - I weaved his music into this recording. I think it turned out perfectly. You can find his complete soundwalk here: Barton Creek Soundwalk.

I ask you to help share this post forward. May it reach all those it was made for. With love /A

Beckoning Trails

So what are we to explore today? Where will we go? There are so many trails to follow...

My life and my mind is an enchanted forest. Trails, many, I pass, as they silently turn away under the low, arching branches - beckoning.

I stop at a cross roads, but I feel how time's moving still. Even in stillness the trail is unfolding, quietly flowering around me. Beckoning.

Softly I am carried, down a path with a wordless name. Nothing is moving here. The air is moist, the overstory thick, the trail is wet and shady. Every leaf hang suspended in time like jewels. They have eyes somehow, I feel their gaze.

The forest is closing in now, tightening its embrace. I inhale preparing for the coming dive, not sure if or when I'll emerge. And then right there, I'm consumed. Hundreds of wet yearning leaves tug at my arms, and my face. Rasping and grasping. Whispering, in a swirling chorus, of all the ways that I belong. Falling through their hypnotic dance, I let them have me. Not afraid, I've fallen before, many times.

And I always came back.

The rustling is subsiding. They hold me gently now. A fresh leaf snug my cheek with a soft kiss, and then; I'm released. Delivered through a hidden opening in the thick brush, suddenly I'm back on my feet. The leafage recedes into the shrouded forest - like the wisp of a dream. I'm left standing, me and the sound of my own breath. The air is cooler now; fresh and clear.

I walk back the winding trails towards the edge of the forest. The trees see me differently now, as if... we are part of the same voice. I nod in recognition of our new bond. New and ancient and true. I've been here long enough.. They came to accept my smell and presence here. A roe deer looks at me steadily as I walk by, his soul in tune with mine.

As I finally emerge, and step out onto the asphalt, I look around at my human kin catching the bus back into town. Secretly I'm a roe deer. My mind is cool as a shrouded path. My breath is the breath of the forest.

Open, I walk slowly. I hear every sound as it arises and disappears in my wide attentive silence. I see every form passing through my clear perception. The city is moving closer. As the buildings grow taller and the attention of the people smaller, instinctively I shape my mind into a sacred shrine. I enclose within it the blissful trace of the whispered kiss.

Here, I will keep it safe. Always.