Walkabout

Woke desperately needing some wild, so took my ass out for a walk. Hike. Both.

It’s one of my favorite spots around here, just isolated (and unpopular) enough that I rarely ever see others in the same area. There’s a river with numerous wash-out areas that all lead to the water. The riverbed is carved through limestone, and rarely changes much.

It isn’t often, but Texas can be quite beautiful in the right spots.

There were still brilliant in-your-face explosions of color.

There’s an abundance of wild ice-cold springs that pop up along this little stretch of river, and the only way to find them is to wade through, feel the water temperature change from tepid to cold, and look for ferns.

It’s so very odd to encounter wild COLD springs in Texas. They exist, yes, but along this river I’ve encountered them along this stretch only.

Clambered to the top of the rocks and sat for a good long while, eye throbbing from what I thought was a horsefly sting, didn’t know it but had the stinger from the little meanie stuck in my eyelashes the entire time.

Didn’t matter, I was alone under the skies, watching eagles dip down to swoop past and touch the water, then soar off again, riding the thermals like a rollercoaster, silently thrilling me. I was quiet, and sunk into the rocks, shaded, at home.

Well-posed so as to NOT capture the puffy eye.

Inside the dark sideways crack in that rock was a small rattlesnake, coiled up, resting, watching me. I said hi to my little brother, thanked him for letting me take pictures of his home, and kept walking. Definitely tried to get some pictures but far too dark to come out clearly and I’m more considerate than to flash his poor eyes with my camera.

Not the clearest, but here is that little damn bastard stinger that hitchhiked inside my eyelashes the entire walk back to my car.

Doesn’t look like much but goddamn no THANK YOU!!

And my gross eye after…took this on the boulder, you can see the stinger clinging to my lashes, though blurry.

Eye throbbing, the whole right side of my face ached. Still pulsing even sitting in the dark at home. My shoe strap kept breaking the entire way back to my car. I twisted my ankle a bit because I couldn’t see clearly, so I slowed way down and took my time and listened.

The grasshoppers sang in the fields as I passed by, a dry serenade to my steps, my breathing, cursing under the pants, it didn’t matter. None of it mattered because this is what nature gives me. I take her gifts and lessons in my stride and learn from them.

We must slow down enough to hear her. Having the whole world in our pockets funnily enough distracts us from her, and we have to stop. Put it down. Ignore the rings and buzzes and chirps unless they’re from the world around us , the REAL one, not the one in our pockets.

I videoed and took pics because I wanted to share the bliss of those moments. Then I put the phone down and walked away to sit far from it a while. To wander, to just exist for a bit anywhere that wasn’t digital. It isn’t there where we live. We live here, now, the glorious now, and how she saves us, if we just embrace her.

Put down the phone, turn off the electronics, go sit on the dirt, bare skin to bare earth if possible. Close your eyes, and just breathe and feel your prayers to the wind, send them and let them go. Our Mother hears us and knows exactly what we need, if we only listen. Trust her.

Be hope. Be love.

(And try to avoid being stung on the eyelid by bees while you’re at it. That shit hurts.)