Near our home here in Brisbane we have this beautiful big chunk of bush. My partner and I walk or run in there most days. After living here for almost four years now I know many of them trails really, really well.
Since I (re)started marathon training at the beginning of the year I've been getting into the bush, on my own, far more often again.
I love it.
I grew up living close to or surrounded by the Australian bush for much of my childhood. To me the bush feels safe and good, wonderful even. And being alone in bush I know (during daylight hours at least) feels very nourishing.
Even when I unexpectedly come across a goanna that's almost as long as I am tall 😂
Brad, my darling partner who has run in this local area for more than 20 years, tells me that he rarely sees goannas (also known as 'lace monitors'). That makes me feel even more lucky when I do see them.
Today, my marathon training called for a fast walk. Since I could walk anywhere I wanted (in the time I had between the rain showers and my next workshop) I opted to head into my beloved bush.
And I did as I often do: I let my intuition tell me where to go.
I walked down our driveway and I notice where I get pulled. When I get to the first split in the trail, I notice where my body wants to go. When I get to the next junction and I thought I would go left but my immediate sense is to go right, I trust that sense.
I've been letting my intuition lead me through life to greater and greater degrees since I was 17.
Just in case it's not clear, that was not yesterday 😂 So I've had a lot of practise. And when I feel safe then I find it quite easy to follow the seemingly illogical things my body wisdom yelled me to do.
Like go down this particular set of trails this morning I had no mental plan to visit. Following this invisible but strong pull meant I found myself with a metre or two of this beauty.
And who, despite being more than strong and able enough to do serious damage to me, crashed through the bush and scampered up this tree the moment it heard (felt? smelled?) me coming. I paused my watch (of course 😂) and said "hello". I took a bunch of photos without getting too close. I moved slowly and predicably so I didn't scare it (or me 😅). And then I said "goodbye", carrying on with my walk along this skinny little track grateful that my intuition brought me to such a beautiful creature that my mind would never have found on its own.
To my friendly OCD moderators:
I know this group is for specialises content that doesn't nicely fit into any other group. As I thought about what I wanted to say in today's post I realised that none of my existing communities felt like a good match for this writing on intuition.
Do you know a good, established community that these sorts of musings would fit into? Maybe there's a brilliant community that I'm not aware of where this kind of content is welcomed. If so, I'd love to know! Thank you ☺️
All photos of said beauty were taken by me on my Google Pixel 2XL phone.