Hiking Through The Bardo 

After about a mile into my 5+ mile Sunday hike I sat on a bench and chronicled the pure ecstasy of my Sunday sojourn. In this post I share how taking a side trail shifted my experience…and some of my paradigms as I traveled through The Bardo: The place of transition according to Tibetian Buddhism.

A turn through the style 

And a passage into a past time once lived

At first, I searched for new memories

Then different scenes, scents and thoughts brought back times long gone

The salty air of the marsh trail

Old scenes crashing into erotic thoughts now lost 

The boardwalks where wayward dogs 

Sought refuge from heat in muddy waters

Humans followed two sets of large paw prints 

The tide moves into this place of transition

And with it the memories return, bittersweetly 

The many years of scenes with 

Wet dogs swimming at every clearing 

in brackish waters begging for owners to 

Throw a stick or a toy

Careful in some places, the current is swift and will steal

Away the gifts  

In this moment, my presence reaches for  

The sights and sounds …

The feeling of water brushed onto my legs as wet, excited dogs run past

of dogs playfully nipping at one another

A competition for the attention of their owners

Loyal dogs with high intelligence

Their ears perk and heads turn giving us

Their full attention 

Chewbacka just may have been modeled after a German Shepherd Dog’s vocal inflections 

Then there are the copper cypress needles adding richness to the brown hues on the trail

Here I remember my son’s first steps on the sodden earth

Or carrying my daughter in a rainbow sling,

Pausing for snap shots and capturing memories

Or the “pregnant” tree I stood beside 

When my first baby bump began to show

Yes, here I am once again in the Bardo

Where the bittersweet memories meet the pain of what is no more 

Walking along the low trails near the cypress bogs

I release my emotional pain into the winds 

And through salty tears that stain my cheeks

Then in the mirror-like water of the tiny lakes  

I see the sky reflected more beautifully below than it is above

The water’s reflection symbolic of its adoration of the sky

Oh, to be adored in such a way 

My mind takes a different path on this day

For so long I have feared my uniqueness and my ability to carry so many different energies 

Now in this place of Bardo and balance, I see and begin to believe 

by law there exists a man 

Who can carry the same

More tears well up, threatening to burst forth

Yes, there must be balance – you cannot be alone in this

The smell of the earth and cypress needles fills my senses
Soon to be replaced by a curious citrus…

Tears from bittersweet memories have dried on my face, 

Such a cleansing feeling the citron scent brings

It’s been at least 18 years since I started hiking regularly at this park 

Hard to miss memories made here 

I wish I had appreciated all of these times more

Lessons I seem to learn over & over again

The search for new memories 

Slowly replaced by the reliving of old ones

All in the same place

The Bardo: this place of transition 

I could know by now that ecstasy can only be maintained for moments in time, surely each time I soar or fly, there is a requisite digging into the darkness below. Balance in all things. 

This song seems to capture the feelings I had during the latter part of my Hike.