Walking as I do at night, my senses notice changes in sound and light more keenly. I notice, for example, the stages of the moon, its waxing and waning, its ascent and descent in the sky. Descending the hill prior to the new moon, as I will and did a few nights ago, requires a different kind of negotiation as the dark appears deeper in the apparent absence of the moon.  It requires more frequent stops to check overhead, to see variations in light patterns as it filters through the branches. It requires use of peripheral vision.  I also notice that my hearing increases. I hear the jumping of a frog off the trail as easily as the deer loping away - both can startle me equally. I hear the treetops gathering the wind in for conversation.

If I am too tired, or simply not trusting in my negotiating skills that night, I use my headlamp to avoid "losing my way." Actually, "losing" oneself is usually a gift of discovery.  But I have gotten off-trail un-announced often enough leading me to surprising turns that I don't assume I will always "know" the way, or greet it happily late at night.  Especially, in the dark of the moon, when the Way can feel unclear, un-illuminated; when my belief in my senses is dampened. Best to check often for other signs and patterns.

It was just such an occasion when I began to notice the patterns of the branches overhead. I glanced up while continuing to walk forward, and was awed by the beauty of the moving branches. It was me, of course, who was moving my feet, but it felt, in the growing dark, that the branches were the ones moving-traversing above me in a dance of light and dark, making new patterns in my brain as the black and white high contrast cards held up for infants.

While noticing these patterns one evening, it suddenly dawned on me that the branch designs could be, and probably were purposeful. They were purposeful in design and objective.  And being such they were effecting a new pattern of energy beneath their creation. These patterns were expressing a change of energy.  An example of this would be in the study of feng shui or bagua.  Well, the feng shui of the forest is a work in progress- with endless subtle adjustments during the period of growth and death.  It is Life and focused energy in motion, increasing our experience of Life in a forest. We might not intellectually know what is changed, or how we are effected.  But we leave the forest different than when we entered.

This past week, I witnessed another example of focused energy in motion, when, at the water's edge, 3 bald eagles circled overhead in an unseen air current. They circled higher and higher in their dance of wind, interweaving and moving to a choreography I did not know. I felt wonder. And like the open mind of the baby, received gifts, my conscious awareness changed. What formulas did that dance instill in my mind, so deeply opened by wonder?  Or for that matter, did the clouds above the eagle, as they shifted and changed, open in me? I don't know, nor do we need to.  We respond, listening to our inner dance and feel a shift.  It could be a shift of energy and consciousness, or a inner inspiration from Spirit,  Understood by the heart and soul.

There have been studies performed on the effects of intention on water as it froze into ice crystals showing beautiful designs effected by various intentions.  The questions above feel like a quest for the effects on consciousness in reverse.  What are the effects of focused attention on we humans from precise creative streams of attention? I choose to receive them with open heart like water particles.  I walk today attentive to the patterns surrounding me, opening to their blessings.  Yes, please let me hear your intentioned creations this day.

A note on the above writing:  This writing is a collaboration of many conversations and writings and to them I give credit and thanks, as well as to the forest and spirit that inspires it.