The third stage of our Sacred Waters Way pilgrimage took us from Totnes to St David’s, Ashprington, and was beautifully led by forest bathing and nature connection guide, Emma Capper. We began in the lovely Leechwell Garden, within sight of last month’s destination at St Mary’s Church, as Emma gently guided us into a multi sensory, mindfulness meditation within a copse of silver birches. The waters from the ancient Leechwell flow through the gardens and soon we were setting off silently, to follow them through the town and towards the River Dart.
As we moved onto the footpath through the Sharpham Estate, Emma offered us the first of several nature connection invitations. This one came at the top of a descending, winding track and encouraged us to experience a sense of weight and gravity and to drop our awareness into our feet – a great way to really come out of any busy, internal mental chatter and settle more into the body and to being present in nature. Then as we climbed towards the woods and approached a gateway, Emma invited us to be aware of the symbolic nature of such thresholds and to step through more consciously and reflect on current threshold experiences in our own lives. A gateway offers us a moment to let go of the past and be present to stepping positively forward into the future.
The path then drew us down to the riverside, where we had time to bathe our hands in the cool water and to watch the changing patterns of light and ripples as boats came past. There was a real quality of slowing in the group and the touch of the water was so calming and clarifying. Later invitations were equally inspiring, including a longer time of silent resting by the reed beds, which I spent gazing into foxglove flowers in a way I’ve rarely taken the time for since I was a child. My personal favourite invitation was being encouraged to imagine how the sky comes right down to the earth, such that we are walking through the sky. Somehow this seemed to open up a new and vast perspective inside me and I felt almost as if I was ‘moon walking’ with big, beautiful steps through the vast space of the cosmos.
After a long climb and another steep descent, we arrived at St David’s, which is a particularly lovely church with perfectly placed seats facing the sun in the churchyard – an ideal spot for our concluding tea ceremony and for sharing final reflections. It was a blessing to be warmly welcomed and joined by Kathi and Laurence Green, church wardens of St David’s and to give them a copy of the River Dart Charter and the charter making document created by the Bioregional Learning Centre. Our pilgrimage to raise awareness of water rights and to sow the seeds of a river long charter continues!
Words & images by Sam
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