In Appenzell Switzerland there is a 90-minute walking trail that is best experienced with no shoes. It is known as the barefoot trail. The walk introduces you to a wide range of experiences, from gravel to sloppy mud, from gentle grass to hard packed dirt. Along the way, for me, it felt like I was revisiting large segments of my life from a new perspective.
On a different occasion, I had just finished three plus weeks of extremely intense work. A gift retreat was an invitation to slow down, perhaps stop, and simply be in silence.
On the second day, a facilitator, Gerald May, invited me to go on a “walk with Divinity”. The guiding principles for the walk seemed odd. I was to leave my watch, phone, and anything resembling a map in my room. It was suggested that I suspend any plans until I returned. The assignment was to walk in any direction, without purpose and goals, to be open and present on where this might lead.
I headed out to the rolling Maryland hills wondering what would unfold. It was a walk and time of silence which forever altered my view and life experience.
When I try to describe what happened during the next 2-3 hours, I often focus on the physical events. Of unexpectedly walking up to several deer who, for reasons still unknown, let me walk through the herd without fear or flight. But there was so much more. The lessons of that day are still with me.
When one shows up to meet Divinity on a regular basis, Divinity will always be there. It may take time to realize She is present, but She will be there.
Divinity’s priorities are often very different from our own. It is not that ours are wrong or bad. Divinity’s priorities are, well, just different.
In every experience with Divinity, I found myself restored, recreated, and loved, often in ways I never imagined. In Appenzell and Maryland, Divinity used the “mountains and all hills, apple orchards and cedar forests” (Psalm 148.9) as an embrace.
