Step off the path into discovery, who knows what you’ll find

I met a real life mushroom forager the other day. Something I only ever came across in romantic films and novels, a real, actual person out in the woods, filling baskets with the loveliest mushrooms, yellow chanterelles and black trumpets.

Being me, I of course stopped him to ask what he was doing, show me the mushrooms and how to identify them and got all excited about foraging for myself.

And I walked the paths in the woods and found nothing. Not a sign of a shroom anywhere. Well, tehre were some slimy, pinky white ones that no self respecting gnome of fairy would ever make a home in.

And as I walking yesterday, looking through the trees for signs of mushrooms – I very easily get obsessive – I thought ‘Hmm, I bet the kind of mushrooms I’m looking for don’t live close to the path, I’m going to have to step off and explore in the overgrown, wilder parts of the woods where there are no paths.’ And with that came the realisation of how much we live out our lives within similar guard rails.

We stay in our comfort zone, not daring to step into the unknown, even though the adventure it promises is so enticing. What if it doesn’t work out? What if we fail?

So what? If you trip and fall, so what? If things don’t work out, so what?

Life isn’t about staying inside the lines.

That’s not where joy and adventure and growth occur.

We have to walk into the unknown and see what happens.

And no matter what, its always for our highest good.

I really do believe that.

Every failure, every smackdown, every broken heart brought me closer to knowing what is right for me and never being willing to settle for less again.

And in the woods, as I walked in between those ancient trees, I discovered a carpet of black trumpets, as if waiting for me to be brave enough to come find them.

Today, I’m taking a veggie bag and my kitchen scissors and I’ll be harvesting some wild mushrooms and making soup. All because I dared to step off the path, determined to find what I was looking for.

Its the same in life, we can keep going on the same way, head down, not seeing the possibiliities around us.

OR, we look up, look at what is interesting and exciting to us and decide to take a chance that it will work out.

Life isn’t about having the same day over and ove again, year after year. Jesus, you might as well already be dead!

Explore, draw outside the lines, step off the path into the unknown. Go for what you want, expecting to find it and welcome it into your reality.

Its the only way to make your dreams come true. By taking a risk. Daring to go on an adventure.

Be curious about life. Stimulate your senses. Live – don’t just exist.

 

Love,

Cynthia xx