The quiet of the mind...

This is what I love about going on a hike... at some point on the way up...(after I've stopped huffing a puffing...LOL) my mind just clears... I may be thinking of one thing or another... and then.. all of the sudden it dawns on me that I'm quiet... I mean truly quiet... my mind is quiet... no thoughts of the day... no anxieties... nothing going on other than maybe looking at the trees or the birds... but it's amazing to be that quiet...It's such a relaxing thing... I think that quiet moment provides clarity... when you can view your surroundings and just be... It is really a wonderful feeling. That total quiet is something I've never before experienced. I would guess that's what it's like to meditate. I was on my way down concentrating with my new poles... when that quiet dawned on me... It had been there for awhile and I noticed it because when I came upon a fellow hiker I was startled... It's like I was in another world...Let me digress a moment ... as always... to say my poles are awesome! I met a guy on a hike when I first got here and he recommended them... and I thought they would be awkward, or cumbersome... but they aren't... They are fantastic... they provide stability on the slippery slopes... and really help your knees... anyway...I then started thinking about something I read in my daughters blog.... she was writing about "who she is" and I was amazed by how well she knows herself... so that led me to think back to the exercise of I did once in my women's group... "I am a woman who"...and what I've come up with ... on my latest hike... "I am a woman who is on an adventure"...