WHAT'S IN A TRACK?

Ever seen a track? I don’t mean one of those things a train runs along. I mean a track. A footprint of an animal or human.
“I see them every day,” I hear you say.
But do you? Have you ever looked into a print made in the soil? What did you see?
“Nothing.”
If you saw nothing, did you really look, did you observe?
Many people today go about their daily lives blissfully unaware of what’s really going on around them. They miss so much. Looking into, not just at a track, can open up a whole new world for you to discover.
First of all, really looking into a track, gets you to stop.

Think about that! When did you last stop for a moment?

Ask yourself what is this telling me? Who or what made this track? What happened here? Why was it made? Where are the tracks leading? Why? Are they human tracks? Are they male or female? Was the person young or old? Is the track fresh or many days old? Was the person carrying a heavy load, like a rucksack? What kind of shoe made the track? Was it a boot, tennis shoe, or maybe a stiletto. Are they lost? Are they Hungry? Are they alone?

The answers to these and many more questions can all be found in the track.
Let’s take the first track that you find. Let’s say from the size and shape of the track, you’ve decided it’s the track of a man’s boot.
See you’re already relaxed and starting to think like a tracker!

Finding that first track is like picking up an imaginary piece of thread. You have the loose end. At the other end, is a living, moving, thinking, person. That person maybe lost or injured. Following that piece of thread is not going to be easy, but this first track starts you on your way. The wisdom is in the track.
“Whoa, just a minute, back up a bit.”
“The wisdom is in the track?” “What’s that supposed to mean?”
It means that the signs, the answers to all the above questions, can be answered by looking, really looking into that first track. It’s not something mystical, its real. In that track, there is a rich landscape of hills, mountains and valleys that have been shaped, not only by the boot, but , by the whole person, and by the environment. Properly read, this landscape can tell you a tremendous amount. The problem is we have forgotten how to read!
In his book, “The Science And Art Of Tracking”, Tom Brown Jr. calls this landscape the “Pressure Releases.” And in it he shows how we can lean to read these pressure releases, and be able to go on a journey of discovery.

So the question, “What’s in a track?

A lot more than you thought was possible, a whole new world of discovery at our finger tips. Or perhaps I should say, “At our feet.” Just look!

...ramon
Small circles of light glitering in the moon,
untill they all melted into one track.
Wordsworth - 1770-1850