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Day 10 – Wayfinding

Day-10-40 days and 40 nights

4 thoughts on “Day 10 – Wayfinding

  1. Thank you for sharing this most private experience with us. I traveled alone from Massachusetts to South Africa in 2005 to volunteer on a reserve, monitoring lions. It was a lifelong dream of mine, and although that was fifteen years ago, I still miss it every day. I was thirty-six that year. I shaved off my shoulder-length hair before I left – something else, as a woman, I had always wanted to do. I abstained from drinking for the entire time I was there (18 days) because I didn’t want the alcohol to affect even a moment of my time there. One of my fondest memories was when I had an up-close encounter with the dominant male, Inkanya. Holding his massive paw in my hands as the vet tended to his torn ear after they had successfully darted him, was a moment I will never forget. From the moment I stepped off the plane, I felt like I was coming home to a place I’d never been. These broadcasts from the bush make me feel like I am on a journey back in time and place – my favorite place, during this difficult time of sheltering in place. Many, many thanks. As I find myself saying to everyone these days, stay safe.

  2. My track today is 65 steps. 65 purposeful steps that make up the circuit of my garden. The full scope of movement within the reality of lockdown.

    I woke up with an aching deep longing today to put on shoes and walk out into the bush, to be in the place of marula and knobthorn, woodland kingfisher and scops owl. I followed that longing which found me with phone in hand, speakers in ears, listening with deep intention to episode after episode from your tree. With each completed circle of steps, your words run deeper I feel a shift in my gaze ..I notice the small things in my path butterflies, ants, the brush of wind through my hair, the feeling of ground meeting each step. Through the passage of feet a well used ‘game path’ emerges along the borders of fynbos beds. And with that emergence something deeper stirs. I do not know where it leads, but I follow…. I circle back to my first soul opening encounter of the bush at the age of 7 in the wild, it was at Londolozi as it newly emerged from rondewals. It feels like the most precious wilderness gifts to listen to your posts from the place of first awakening…your stories, reflections and thoughts accompany me in profound ways as I track my 65 steps, round and round.

    I come to sit at the end of stepping with each of your posts and am keenly now aware of how lockdown now seems more like cocoon and slow metamorphosis . I am grateful, so grateful for this time and in particular today for every step walked in company with you today. I look forward to more from your tree in the bushveld …

  3. When the student is ready the teacher will appear!
    Thank you for being that teacher for me and so many others at this moment.
    During this time when the world has stopped and this force is pulling me to “be present” here are your profound thoughts, your amazing stories which are transforming into clarity for me
    Who knew 2 weeks of mandatory self quarantine in an apartment in a city could be so enlightening. Hvala

  4. Whilst it is snowing in May in New Brunswick, I kid you not, this is the kind of journal entry I need to hear! Thank you Boyd!

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