Yesterday I was hiking in Northern Michigan. Without the magic of a blanket of snow, the forest seemed dead. Dead. Bleak. And beat up. Visiting the forest was like showing up unannounced at a friend’s house on Sunday morning after the friend had been on a weekend bender. The trees looked old. Damaged. All the beauty of the previous season had been stripped away. Their leaves lay in crumpled piles on the ground, like last night’s clothes. It was so quiet. I didn’t expect to see other humans, but I was surprised how little evidence of any kind of life existed. As I often do this time of year, I also wondered what I was doing there. I love winter hiking when there is snow and there are icefalls, but this? It is tough to find inspiration. About 6 miles in, I gave up on finding inspiration in either images or words. I was tired of this hike and tired of being in my own head. I gave up and did the only thing I could do. I trudged on.
Of course, I returned to the idea of inspiration as I trudged. I started thinking about what I wanted, what I expected. I remembered a conversation I had with my sister earlier in the day. She said that sometimes she has an idea about what fun looks like, and when a different kind of fun comes along, she doesn’t immediately recognize it. That idea interested me. Maybe I was not inspired because I wasn’t open to new kinds of inspiration. A little later, I looked down and saw beautiful green-gray lichen. I spent some time taking pictures of it. It was beautiful in a way that I never before noticed, probably because previously I compared it to something majestic, like an icefall. Then I saw a branch lying across the trail with an interesting fungus on it. Both of these things were directly on the path. How many times had I stepped over or even ON gifts like this while I looked for the grand things that usually inspire me?
Maybe I spend so much time chasing inspiration that I forget to surrender to it in all forms. What would happen if I took a more passive approach? What if I accepted inspiration? I don’t mean accept as in settling for something sub-adequate but rather accept something as it is and not comparing it to what I am looking for? What if I let circumstances surprise me? What if I yield to my experiences from a place of power? I swear, I thought those words as I looked to my left and saw an ammunition box near a tree stump about 20 feet away. I stopped and considered the possible contents (bullets, severed body parts, drug money) and whether I should explore further. I looked around to see if it was a trap before sneaking over to the box. I circled it and realized it was locked with a cable to the tree stump. I looked around again before going close enough to spy a sticker on the box with the words “Geocache. Congratulations, you’ve found it intentionally or not!” The sticker went on to explain, “…this is a worldwide game that involves a GPSr user hiding a treasure—the box and its contents—for other GPSr users to find.”
Treasure! All I had to do what slow down and look. To accept my surroundings. To yield to the current circumstances. My reward was instantaneous. Instantaneous treasure ❤️
The quality of this picture is awful but it is the only one I have. I think the image itself is worth the poor quality, you know, because it’s treasure.