Stepping Off the Path

Stepping Off the Path

Into the Woods of the Absolute

This morning I began with rest. Let go of thoughts of the past. Let go of thoughts of the future. Let go of thoughts of now. Don’t build anything. Don’t take anything apart. Just rest.

At first that rest feels small… like a perfect circle. Complete. Untouched. Nothing missing. Nothing added. Just rest.

But life has a way of touching the edges. Thoughts pull. Emotions pull. Memories pull. The world pulls.

And instead of losing the rest… I began to feel it stretch.

The circle became an oval. The oval became longer… quieter… more spacious… until it no longer felt like a shape at all—more like a path.

And then another image came. A deep snow from childhood. Stepping off the packed trail… off the familiar path… and into untouched snow.

The first foot sinks. Then the next. Not standing on the snow… standing in it. Held by it. Wrapped in it. Absorbed by it.

And suddenly I realized—this is what it feels like to step off the relative path… and into the woods of the absolute.

Not above it. Not looking at it. Not thinking about it. Stepping into it.

Each step sinks deeper. Each step asks for surrender. And with each step… less of me is walking through it… and more of me is being held by what was always there.