The Enchanted Place

One day, I decided to go for a ride on my bicycle. It was a lovely sunny day, the birds were singing beautifully, there was nothing that called for my immediate attention, so why not I thought.

I loved to cycle up and down the steep winding slopes of the rugged Norwegian landscape.

I decided to take the same route as I usually did, and so I set off, totally, unaware of the strange event that would happen to me, so strange! That to this day I have no real explanation as to what really happened, or why.

Here we go.

Well, everything went as normal, the tour lasted for about an hour, and I was about two minutes away from my house, when to the left of me, my eye caught the attention of some tall trees I had never seen before, they were all standing in a row, both sides of a small dirt road. I recognized the road, but not the trees. Just as I was puzzling about where did these trees come from, all on its own, my bike did a really smooth left swing into this road. I remembered it was as if something took over the bike and just guided it in.

I looked up towards the top of these enormous trees, thinking that maybe someone had planted them since my last tour, which was only a few days ago. But that was ridiculous, they had been there for ages. Before I could think of more alternative answers, again I was guided to the left into an even smaller road, I'd never seen that before either.

I stopped at the entrance, and gazed about me, at a most beautiful and peaceful place. By now, I had stopped analyzing the strange events and accepted it, thinking to myself "how did I miss this place"? And so I got off my bike and walked in.

It looked like nobody had been there for years, the whole place was overgrown with wild flowers, ablaze with color and there were varieties of plants I had never seen before.

I noticed that I was enclosed inside a dense circle of trees and bushes, I tried to see through them but I couldn't.

In the middle there stood an old Stabbur, quite common in Norway, for those who have never seen one, its a smallish rafted house on stilts, where people kept their food to stop mice getting at it.

I went over to it and sat down on the old wooden steps in front of it, and took in as much as my senses would allow. It felt so peaceful there, I felt honored, thanking whoever was responsible for this. I sat in silence with some anticipation as to whether or not something else might happen.

"What a great place for a picnic", I thought, and after about 15 minutes, I returned to my bike, got on it, and cycled back the way I came.

The towering well placed trees were still there, and the swing at the end of the road, but as I turned out onto the original road I was on, to my utter surprise, it wasn't there, this was another road. I was confused, "where am I? This isn't the road I was on, I was somewhere else, and I didn't know where.

I cycled down this road and that road, I knew in some way that my house was in the direction I was heading, some twenty minutes had gone by now and at last I came to a road I recognized, and followed it until I reached home.

Funnily enough, I didn't wonder too much about it for the rest of the day, I just thought that tomorrow I would go there again and find out the quickest way to get there.

The next day came, and off I went to find this most enchanting place, looking forward to a picnic with my family, again sprang to mind, and the good feeling you get when you show someone something that just lifts them up in the air and makes them smile.

I had still not fathomed out what had happened, I just thought that nothing strange had occurred and I would again find this fabulous place, and just a couple of minutes from where I lived.

When I got to the road, where it all started, everything looked as before, minus the tall trees. I entered the road but it just led to what I knew was there, some houses and a dead end, no trees, no left turn, nothing, it wasn't to be found.

The next few weeks, I searched for this place, every road in the possible vicinity, in fact.

I recollected, that before I entered the road I knew, that I was only about two minutes from home, but when I cycled out, I was about half an hour away.

Then what really happened? Why did it happen?, And to me, do strange things like this happen to other people? What about the difference in distances? The shifting of places? Did a spirit try to show me, or tell me something? Was it a time or space portal? A distortion in material reality?.

I feel that someone, a friend or friends not living on earth, but in the spirit world, thought that I should experience something so different than what we know, and convey to me afterward that it was part of the normal workings of God's laws, and that what man knows, is very little indeed.

I had, and still have many queries about the incident, I have my own theories, but no answers, maybe it will be revealed to me at a future time, the appropriate time.

I still go past the magical road, wondering if, I will again see the very tall and well positioned trees that lined the way to that, enchanted place!

Ian Nicol