After 98.9 miles on the Le Puy route, I finally have language for why I walk alone each year. It runs counter to what most of us were taught about going inward.
Beautiful, Jeffrey. You remind me of why I need to walk, and when I don't, that I feel less myself, more anxious, less connected. I have always loved walking, being attentive to birds and flowers, weather and water, forest and field. You are right, being outside brings me into my soul and spirit. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words, Beth. It is so simple to walk and breathe and clear our minds, yet so many try to fool us into maintaining a distance that is ours by birth. So happy to help us remember!
Thank you so much for this Jeffrey. I have struggled with the sit still for years, faithfully showing up. Yesterday, with something weighing heavy on my heart, I took a long walk in one of my favorite woods, spent several minutes leading my forehead against a tree, and I was met. And then I read this. What a gift.
Thanks for these kind words, Martha, and sorry you had to bear such weight. It is ironic that those who told you to empty yourself to release assumed you would want to do so in isolation, rather than through connection with the living world.
Jeffrey, I liked that you made this feel doable for anyone whether they just have a small patch of nature nearby or the piece of the Camino you visited. I too, enjoy movement meditation by walking or run/walking and always love noticing what stands out to me in my environment. Even a new flower blossom or duck I didn't see the day before is joyful.
My favorite line: "let the walking and the watching do the work that sitting was supposed to do for you." No need to sit when you can move and reflect simultaneously.
Thanks, and I agree, moving meditation is as valid, rich, and deep as anything we do cross-legged and alone. Perhaps more so, as we are kin-focused by nature, so retreating into ourselves as a sole practice is indeed solitary.
This is so very beautiful, Jeffrey! Thank you for writing from your perspective and experiences. I love what you are bringing into the contemplative traditions and to the traditional ways "in." It makes me wonder if, within the bird song and sounds of flowing creeks, is the silence. Within the movement is the stillness.
"Walking hour after hour, the body sets a rhythm the mind eventually follows, and the company of the living world stops being a place I visit and becomes the medium I think inside." That is it precisely. And it's why we miss it so so much when we are not in it. How I hated, upon returning from my Camino, to realize that the thing I longed for was right outside my door. It was not nature per se. It was moving through it ... until it and I were one. I believe in your practice (the sit spot) and I think there is so much to be gained by communing with nature in that way. Of course there is! It is so much better than sitting inside, or sitting with one's eyes closed. But for me .... the communing comes from the motion of being IN it, moving THROUGH it. Hour after hour, day after day, until it is more my lifestyle than sitting. We were made to move.
I am so looking forward to the walk in September and until then, and after then, I need to reflect and practice moving THROUGH nature as a way of life. I lost my pacing after I returned from the Camino 3 years ago and never got it back. At first I wanted to walk everywhere. And then, frankly, I didn't have the time to walk for an hour to cover three miles when I could drive and get there in 5 minutes. But walking and outdoor movement must become a sustaining part of my life every day. I'm only half a person when that is not happening. Perhaps I need to take up light running on a daily basis. I have not figured this out yet. I might have to do it imperfectly and reap whatever benefit I can. Until then, I wait eagerly for my Camino with your group in September.
Rebecca, thank you for sharing this and for being so open about how you deepen your own meaning-making and connection with the living Earth. There are so many strands here to pick up and explore, to prepare for and try out, that I find myself wondering what your thoughts are about starting with something simple, just for today, just to begin.
You’re right that many of us don’t have time for as much daily walking as we know would be good for us. Light running may work, and that is different from what walking can bring. Given the demands of modern life, it seems that taking a few steps today is better than taking none at all.
Oh, I'll be running today (partially in prep for our September walk), and for sure, taking a few steps is good. But there's such a qualitative difference between the mostly stationary and sedentary lives most of us live, and the health-on-every-level that emerges when walking is your full-time job. It's not realistic to live that way, unless you are either a full-time pilgrim or a full-time guide or sherpa. And a little can be almost a tease. I think I will have to become someone who, like you, makes a Camimo-like immersion in walking and nature a regular annual experience, a touchstone if you will, so that, as you say, those daily tastes of nature and outside can keep that spirit alive.
Perhaps the walk in September can be a trial for that, a taste of it, or one of several items to meditate upon / live into while engaging in the walk itself. I often bring one or two things I want to ponder and reflect upon as an interior process for the walk, something I consider when I start the walk each day, and it lingers in the background. I do not think of it as troubleshooting, but more as pondering in a new light.
Beautiful, Jeffrey. You remind me of why I need to walk, and when I don't, that I feel less myself, more anxious, less connected. I have always loved walking, being attentive to birds and flowers, weather and water, forest and field. You are right, being outside brings me into my soul and spirit. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words, Beth. It is so simple to walk and breathe and clear our minds, yet so many try to fool us into maintaining a distance that is ours by birth. So happy to help us remember!
Thank you so much for this Jeffrey. I have struggled with the sit still for years, faithfully showing up. Yesterday, with something weighing heavy on my heart, I took a long walk in one of my favorite woods, spent several minutes leading my forehead against a tree, and I was met. And then I read this. What a gift.
Thanks for these kind words, Martha, and sorry you had to bear such weight. It is ironic that those who told you to empty yourself to release assumed you would want to do so in isolation, rather than through connection with the living world.
Jeffrey, I liked that you made this feel doable for anyone whether they just have a small patch of nature nearby or the piece of the Camino you visited. I too, enjoy movement meditation by walking or run/walking and always love noticing what stands out to me in my environment. Even a new flower blossom or duck I didn't see the day before is joyful.
My favorite line: "let the walking and the watching do the work that sitting was supposed to do for you." No need to sit when you can move and reflect simultaneously.
Melanie, we speak a similar language that many find hard to grasp. That is, tough until they feel free and open enough to try.
Moving meditations are underrated. Lovely to read your reflections.
Thanks, and I agree, moving meditation is as valid, rich, and deep as anything we do cross-legged and alone. Perhaps more so, as we are kin-focused by nature, so retreating into ourselves as a sole practice is indeed solitary.
This is so very beautiful, Jeffrey! Thank you for writing from your perspective and experiences. I love what you are bringing into the contemplative traditions and to the traditional ways "in." It makes me wonder if, within the bird song and sounds of flowing creeks, is the silence. Within the movement is the stillness.
This is so poetically shared, Valerie. Thank you for deepening into this.
"Walking hour after hour, the body sets a rhythm the mind eventually follows, and the company of the living world stops being a place I visit and becomes the medium I think inside." That is it precisely. And it's why we miss it so so much when we are not in it. How I hated, upon returning from my Camino, to realize that the thing I longed for was right outside my door. It was not nature per se. It was moving through it ... until it and I were one. I believe in your practice (the sit spot) and I think there is so much to be gained by communing with nature in that way. Of course there is! It is so much better than sitting inside, or sitting with one's eyes closed. But for me .... the communing comes from the motion of being IN it, moving THROUGH it. Hour after hour, day after day, until it is more my lifestyle than sitting. We were made to move.
I am so looking forward to the walk in September and until then, and after then, I need to reflect and practice moving THROUGH nature as a way of life. I lost my pacing after I returned from the Camino 3 years ago and never got it back. At first I wanted to walk everywhere. And then, frankly, I didn't have the time to walk for an hour to cover three miles when I could drive and get there in 5 minutes. But walking and outdoor movement must become a sustaining part of my life every day. I'm only half a person when that is not happening. Perhaps I need to take up light running on a daily basis. I have not figured this out yet. I might have to do it imperfectly and reap whatever benefit I can. Until then, I wait eagerly for my Camino with your group in September.
Rebecca, thank you for sharing this and for being so open about how you deepen your own meaning-making and connection with the living Earth. There are so many strands here to pick up and explore, to prepare for and try out, that I find myself wondering what your thoughts are about starting with something simple, just for today, just to begin.
You’re right that many of us don’t have time for as much daily walking as we know would be good for us. Light running may work, and that is different from what walking can bring. Given the demands of modern life, it seems that taking a few steps today is better than taking none at all.
Oh, I'll be running today (partially in prep for our September walk), and for sure, taking a few steps is good. But there's such a qualitative difference between the mostly stationary and sedentary lives most of us live, and the health-on-every-level that emerges when walking is your full-time job. It's not realistic to live that way, unless you are either a full-time pilgrim or a full-time guide or sherpa. And a little can be almost a tease. I think I will have to become someone who, like you, makes a Camimo-like immersion in walking and nature a regular annual experience, a touchstone if you will, so that, as you say, those daily tastes of nature and outside can keep that spirit alive.
Perhaps the walk in September can be a trial for that, a taste of it, or one of several items to meditate upon / live into while engaging in the walk itself. I often bring one or two things I want to ponder and reflect upon as an interior process for the walk, something I consider when I start the walk each day, and it lingers in the background. I do not think of it as troubleshooting, but more as pondering in a new light.
Solvitur ambulando. Indeed.