Short experiencer story from Belgium, by Patrick Franck

By Patrick Franck

Short experiencer story from Belgium.

Few days ago I was in the south-east Belgium, Province Luxemburg having a relaxed time in companionship of my girlfriend. Doing some short hikes around Frahan, Rochehaut…, beautiful places right in the middle of meandering Semois.

Beside viewing the ‘immaculate’? natural scenery with historical remains of Dolmen, Menhir, Dark Middle ages, we’ve seen deer, falcon, owl, buzzard, fox, squirrel and some typical beaver habitat ( see pictures). The little cottage ‘2 rooms with a view’ gave us immediate sight on prairie, agricultural plots, forestal regenesis of mostly fir trees although there is the idea of implantation of native trees. Beside these interesting documentations of geology, archaeology and societal change there was that enormous ‘invisible’ highlight on our relaxing journey.

After the second day of getting out of the rush of daily life we went into an evening walk. We had the intention from the beginning of our night walk to ‘meet and greet’ with a ‘forest people’. Still quite cold ( 7° C) we trailed around in the twilight within the fields and little forests, scrubs and late singing birds as companion. Beside the audible stillness of fir trees we enjoyed a beautiful nightfall.

When suddenly the quietness was interrupted , no singing of finch, tit or other winged creature but..2 times in a row, imagine cracking or displacing branches, loud cracks comparable with giant heavy footsteps on dry wood material. Strangely enough this kind of unexpected sound in the middle of our walk unlocks certain feelings in the body. Some feel comfortable, somewhat excitement, while others tend to have a restricting e-motion with an opportunity for release of conflicting ideas/ belief patterns. As minutes went by I started communication by whistling, not a whole serenade but just simple 2 tones.

Surely surprised we got an similar response from blackbird with the same short tone melody? Stunned by the no-time answer I decided to call ‘them’ by name. Calling out the names of Tuniya, Bryond and Yurri …that’s were the elemental command of Wind came into play. By the time the last words left my mouth there was a gentle breeze making the young tree tops dance. Amazing fact only a small portion of local tree crowns in front of us swayed graciously, the rest was ‘at rest’?

The usual goosebumps followed after the wind touched our bodies from the fronting made the hairs stand tall on the back. It is an exercise to describe what really happened and how these kind of experiences create sensations in our physical body. Grateful for this encounter and still digesting…