Listening to creation (walk from Penzance to Faugan Round)

I went for a walk yesterday. Needed to get outside and breathe November air, and search for a view or too, and blow out the cobwebs as they say. Actually I found quite a lot of cobwebs on my walk, but I'll get to those later :-)

I went to explore, with an aim to find something that had caught my attention on the map. I went to find paths I'd not walked down before. Not having a car has limited how far we can go in terms of travelling around Cornwall but today reminded me again that there's always more to find and to see, right where we are, we've just got to open our eyes wider and dig a little deeper.

I'm sure I've said it before - I think creation has plenty to say to us.  And interestingly nearly all the songs that were sung at a church service I attended this evening mentioned creation or nature in some way - the sun, waves, mountains, etc - all reminding the songwriter of some aspect of the Creator.

So today, as I walked, I tried to listen...

Hidden doorways down silent paths. A feeling of being forgotten, or abandoned. 

Or perhaps a secret garden... who has the key? What doors lie waiting for me to unlock?

A surprising view, and suddenly it feels as if I'm in a whole other world. 

Not one that I belong to, but one I can enjoy for a moment or two, before it's time to move on...

Sometimes we've got to climb some really steep paths, and we wonder why, and then, it's obvious. This view is made to be seen and delighted in! And we receive a whole other perspective on our situation.

I turned down a lot of wrong paths, and had to backtrack. Lots. It cost me a fair bit of time, and I got annoyed with myself for not reading the map well. But at the same time it meant I discovered some beauty I would have missed otherwise. Like the fields draped with shimmering webs.

Many new paths, and I was alone along all of them. Some dark, some muddy, some difficult to get through. But I made it to my destination in the end... the remains of a settlement more than 2,000 years old! Which turned out mainly to be the surrounding walls.  I often notice the walls in Cornwall - ancient and beautiful. They tell stories for sure.

This was the view looking one way... peace, warmth on my skin, thankful for the moment, thankful for legs that got me there, thankful for maps (and phones with 3G!) and time and my camera...

...and this was the view looking another! A threat on the horizon. You could see the rain coming, swallowing up the light, and I didn't really believe it would reach me, standing there in the sun... but it did!

Just before I got soaked through though: a gift! A promise! 

Right in front of me, with no one else in sight, as if it were just for me :-)

What's creation telling you?