While in Oxford, I had the opportunity to get away for a couple of days hike with Peter Hunter OP. We went to the Ridgeway, a trail that runs just outside of Oxfordshire following a chalk ridge through the English countryside. The pastoral scenes along the ridge remind one of the Tolkien's descriptions of the Shire in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Lying between Oxford and London, sandwiched between the intellectual ferment of Oxford and the incredible bustle of London, the trail seems oddly peaceful, like the Shire sandwiched between the warring nations of middle earth. All is calm here, and walking the trail, one has no concerns for what might be going on in the outside world. No cell phones, no newspapers, today we simply worry about where we will stop for lunch, how far to the next pub, and how the harvest is doing in the fields we pass.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that there is work waiting for me back in Oxford, and that in a few days I'll be gone on some other part of my journey, but the more I walk, the less I seem to be getting to some destination. Walking becomes everything, being here right now is the only concern, watching for nettles that might sting me as I past, or a good place to take a dip in the Thames. I suppose I have come from somewhere and am going somewhere else, but I am not "on the way," I am simply walking.
Between the fields and lanes there are always hedgerows. The third photo was taken between a busy roadway and a newly harvested field. We had come into town to find some breakfast but had run into traffic on the roadway. We ducked into the field to get away from the traffic while following the roadway. A hawk jumped out of tree just above here, surprised by our sudden appearance. Numerous rabbit and fox trails could be seen going in and out of the hedgerow. Birds rustled in the blackberry bushes and sang. Here between the road and the field was life in abundance and diversity, so many animals that make their home in between the bustle of the road and the barrenness of the harvested field.
Today Peter and I were two of those animals sandwiched between the work we left behind and more work that was waiting on our return, but finding a long narrow space in between past and future where we could just walk in peace.