Walking Path

 

   C and I have a favourite path that we like to walk on. We like it for many reasons. It's not far from our house. It runs through some forests. There are also two places where the path can be accessed. If we want a long walk we can park at the head of the trail and walk a total of six miles or we can park at the midpoint and walk three miles.

   Lately we've been taking the shorter walk as we tend to get there later in the afternoon and want to get home before dark. We like walking the path to see the changes in the trees and the little streams that run through the area. There is also something else that changes frequently. There are decorations on the trail.

  This past spring when we started walking on the trail someone or several someones put decorated rocks on the path. The rocks had pictures and encouraging sayings on them. I took a picture of one that had a picture of  bees on it and said "Bee Strong". The rocks were places at various intervals on the trails. C and I liked to hunt for the rocks and see if we could spot new ones.

   We started noticing that the rocks were missing. Someone must have been taking them. We later found a sign asking the person who was stealing the rocks to stop doing it. 

   Then we noticed that someone was making small doors and nailing them to the bark of the trees. The doors were all decorated differently. Some of the doors were near to the ground and had little paths leading to them. We started looking for the doors and seeing if there were new ones. We were pleased that no one was trying to remove the doors. 

  As fall headed into winter, we started seeing more decorations. Someone had decorated pieces of wood putting ribbons on the pieces and hanging them from trees. There were pictures of mittens, a snowman face and elves. Someone had hung Christmas tree decorations on the branches of a large pine near the path. I was amazed to see that none of the balls hung on the tree were stolen.

   Yesterday we walked on the path. There were still decorations hanging on the pine, but there were some new ones. I'm not sure if the old ones were removed and replaced with new decorations or if the old ones were stolen. It made me happy to see that someone or some group was decorating that tree.

   Lately it has been hard for me to see anything positive. It just seems like at least right now the human tendency is to be mean, destructive, insulting and hurtful. Destruction and threatening violence is being seen as a show of strength and power. Following the law and being considerate is showing weakness and brainlessness.

   We really needed to take that walk along the path yesterday. Walking in the woods greeting fellow walkers and their dogs was a welcome break. Breathing in the fresh air, seeing the clean white snow in the forest and seeing the decorations that others put up in the hopes of cheering and encouraging others reminded me that there are still some good people in the world.