Musings from the Creek

Musings from the Creek

 

Was it Betty Shine who used to say that you don’t have to be a reclining Buddha to meditate? Simply find a quiet place to sit or go for a walk and let the magic happen. Well, today I decided to take myself to the park and get some exercise and fresh air, or as fresh as it can be at this time of year in Dubai! I had been writing reports all day, stuck in front of the computer and I needed to move my body and my energy around. I was feeling extremely pleased with myself for having finished my mission (25 reports) and I just had that urge to get out and enjoy some natural therapy.

 

Creek Park is a gem of a place. Open early till late and mostly quiet during the week, especially day time. However, I was going there at night and I was pleasantly surprised to find it comparatively empty. I suppose the heat of summer had discouraged the usual hoards of weekend “bar-b-que’ers”. As I walked through the gate, I removed my shoes (my usual practice) so that I could experience the different textures of sand, soil and grass. A perfect way to ground myself and detox from the stresses of the day. I had my bottle of Masafi (water to the uninitiated) with me, so no problems about dehydration for the next hour or so.

 

Without expectation, I followed my feet, planting them firmly on the soft, cool grass. Wonderful! Exactly what the doctor ordered. I had only been walking a few minutes when it struck me. How busy my mind had become. Full of thoughts of today, yesterday and tomorrow. Was there any chance of switching if off? Right now all I really wanted to do was to be quiet and give my brain a rest. After all it had been working flat out all day. How could I calm that hard disk, that computer hub? And then the spirit of inspiration tapped on my door. All the greatest spiritual teachers of history will tell you, you only hear properly when you are silent. In fact my girl friend had so cleverly reminded me only yesterday that in order to hear our inner voice, our connection to our higher self or God (whatever your belief), we have to switch off the outer noise and tune into the inner peace, the inner ear.

 

That is all very well, I objected, but it is not so easy to shut out those noises, those external disturbances. There must be another way? At least if I can’t tune out the noise of my thoughts, maybe I can tune into the noises in the park. That way I will at least be able to concentrate on something other than my busy brain. At first, all I could hear were the obvious things like children screeching on a ride in the amusement park next door, a helicopter overhead. And those thoughts still crept in. But I stayed with it, and started to notice the lapping of the creek water on the shore, my feet squeaking in the wet sand, a solitary bird hooting across the water, crickets in the ground cover. I congratulated myself for each and every new sound that introduced itself to me. I am sure if anyone had been watching they would have seen my ears standing on end, straining like radars to trap the next audio offering.

 

Then I became distracted. Smells of bar-b-q food wafted beneath my nose and men’s perfume as a few families strolled by. I wondered if by shutting off my olfactory sense, the auditory one would be enhanced. Concentrate, gal, what can you hear? I stalked a tree and even put my ear to the bark. I was not sure what I expected to hear but I was willing to offer my ear in a token gesture of greeting anyway!

 

By now, of course, any of those curious as to what I was doing would have given me up as totally mad. Oh well!, I thought, sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one’s reputation in the name of science. For science it truly was. I was in the middle of a very important experiment. The curious thing was that I lost all track of time and it must have been over an hour when I realized that I was feeling very calm and relaxed and that my noisy brain  was, for the most part, strangely silent.

 

Whatever I had been doing, something had worked. And that is when inspiration began. I suddenly had all these enlightened thoughts and I wished I had a tape recorder with me to capture them as they flooded into my consciousness. At which point I decided it was time to go home and try and capture the essence of what had happened on paper.

 

So next time you want to take a break, try your local park and let me know if you have the same experience. I will be listening out for your thoughts in the silence of my mind.