Dear Reader,
If you walk and sense that those walks could hold more than exercise, you are in the right place.
Contemplative Walking is both the name of this publication and the practice it teaches: walking slowly, in silence, with attention given to the living world. Instead of directing your attention inward to your breath or your thoughts, you turn it outward until a walk becomes an encounter. The practice is rooted in ecospirituality and in the thousand-year tradition of pilgrimage that the Camino de Santiago still carries. I have walked that path six times, mostly along the ancient Le Puy route through rural France, and I serve as a Chaplain at New York University. What I write here comes from those miles and that ministry.
You may already care deeply about the Earth. What may be missing is the felt experience of belonging to her, the kind that comes through walking, attention, and time. That is what we practice here, slowly. There are no ads and no algorithms. Just walking, writing, and the company of others asking the same questions you are.
One essay arrives each Monday, with shorter Notes between, a rhythm slow enough to actually settle in. The essays return again and again to a few well-worn paths:
Contemplative walking practices that fit inside an ordinary day.
Pilgrimage, drawn from six Caminos and the long tradition they belong to.
Ecological grief and wonder, held together rather than kept apart.
The sacred in ordinary places, such as a city park, two ravens, a discarded Christmas tree on a curb.
Wherever you are on this path, whether you are full of wonder or weary with grief, you belong here.
Where to Begin
If you would like a feel for the work before you decide, choose the doorway that matches where you are right now:
If you want to know what contemplative walking actually is:
If you are short on time and want a practice you can start today:
If you are carrying grief for the Earth and want it witnessed:
If you wonder what presence actually feels like in the body:
If you want the heart of why this work matters now:
A Little More About Me
I am Jeffrey. I serve as a Chaplain at New York University, where I also teach research methodology. I teach the Rewilding the Soul Ecospirituality Certificate at Cherry Hill Seminary and was ordained as a Wild Guide. I have walked the Camino de Santiago six times, and I guide small contemplative walking retreats along the Le Puy route in France.
I am still learning all of it. That is part of why I write.
Why Subscribe
If you want a quiet place to be in relationship with the living world rather than only worried about her, subscribing means these reflections land in your inbox before the noise of the day takes over.
Free subscribers receive every essay, full archive access, and the ability to join the conversation in the comments.
Paid annual subscribers also receive Pack Light, Walk Present: The Contemplative Camino Packing Guide, along with a Camino packing-and-planning conversation with me directly. Your support keeps this writing open and accessible to everyone, and I am very grateful for it.
If any of this sounds like you, I would love to have you walk with us.
~ Jeffrey
Thank you, Jeffrey!