A Lesson in Expectations
“Often the most precious gifts of life come in ways we neither plan nor expect.”
~ Radhanath Swami
Recently I went back to Small Cave trail at Plunkett Regional Park, with the intention to return and capture on camera, all the birds I’d spotted the previous week. However what I found was that those birds weren’t in the places I’d found them the previous week. And even though there were birds about, seemingly they were all too high for me to really photograph and identify.
I was in a quandary…do I just stop, turn around and go home, or do I continue?
My expectation was to photograph the birds I’d identified the week before, but this time around it just wasn’t going to happen. At first I was really annoyed because I had carried my two cameras – one of them sporting the heavy, long lens, and it wasn’t easy cradling the lens as I walked. I also had my monopod in the other hand.
When I realised that the birds I had planned to photograph would not appear, I put my gear down, pulled out my other camera with a 50mm lens and decided to practice my macro or close-up photography. I had brought it for that reason anyway, as I wasn’t happy with the close-up photos of plants and flowers, using my wide angle lens on previous occasions.
Once I had set down my gear and taken off my backpack, I pulled out the other camera and began to look closer and to look down. I noticed different lichen growing randomly on the trunk of a lilly pilly tree. You’ve probably seen them often in forests – lichen covered trunks that look like someone has taken to them by splashing paint on them in blotches of white, cream and moss green. As I began to explore and look closer, and I looked down, it was then that flashes of tiny red jumped out at me from the base of a big eucalypt tree.
They looked like miniature mushroom stools, but they were no more than 2-3mm in diameter. I thought they were fungi but I wasn’t sure. Either way, I was captivated by them, so I took a number of photos and made a mental note to identify them when I got home.
(Photos from left to right) 1. Cladonia Lichen; 2. Alternate view from Small Cave; 3. Tongue Orchid plant
For me, this experience was a lesson in expectations. It was about wanting to control every aspect of my experience. Sound familiar?
Often, what we expect to happen doesn’t come to fruition. So what do we do? Do we just give up and tell ourselves we didn’t achieve anything, or do we stop trying to control the outcome and just be present to what’s right in front of us and be open to the possibilities? Often what you least expect is exactly what you need, rather than what you want. Our higher selves know what is best for us. But we have to create enough space in our lives and develop the awareness to recognise this.
Going on these walks, regardless of what my objectives are, is a great opportunity to still my mind and shut out all the noise of technology, cars, people and ‘stuff’ going around in my head. It offers me a way to quiet my mind and to be present to the calming and grounding energy of nature, and be still long enough to connect with it and with myself by turning inwards.
It also offers me great clarity and insight. Problems and frustrations that may have dogged me, seem to disappear and a way forward opens up to me.
So if you’re finding you need to ‘unplug’, take a walk in nature. Don’t look at your phone. Put it away. If you have to take photos, do so but put it away and don’t fall for the ‘scrolling’ trap. Put your attention on what’s right in front of you and become that curious child again and marvel at the wonder of what nature has to offer.
Your problems will fall away for a time and give you clarity and insights that weren’t previously available to you. And an unexpected benefit will be that you experience great joy, happiness and gratitude for the most simple moments and things in your life, giving it an added dimension, deeper meaning and purpose.
It will be easier ‘just to be happy’, rather than pursuing the ideal of happiness. That (pursuit of happiness) becomes a fruitless endeavour anyway, because every time you arrive at the next destination, you’re already looking for the next one, and the next one and you never get to experience the satisfaction and contentedness of being happy because your focus is in the wrong place.
Before you even realise it, you’ve come to the end of yet another destination and you’re still not happy because you never decided to enjoy the in-between…all those seemingly insignificant moments that make up the journey, when you could have easily decided to be happy right then and there.
Save the Date for our next Nature Journaling Walk + Workshop
The next walk + workshop will be on Saturday June 17 at Logan Village. So put that date in your calendar! This walk + workshop will be a little different, and I’ll reveal all the details as it gets a bit closer. Just know that after our walk, you’ll be able to enjoy the workshop in comfortable surrounds and hot drinks to keep you warm!
Until next time, please enjoy…
…good things.
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