“Walk[ing] on trails or simply be[ing] outside in a meditative way. . . deepen one’s connection - a lived, conscious connection - to nature.”
I’m a walker, I love to explore an area by making a grid and then walking the area. It’s a way to learn and to find unique pieces of public art, street art, and graffiti - a hobby I have undertaken for several years. There are so many facets of walking - the solitude, the way my breathing naturally goes to my belly, the peace and ability to transcend any roles I might have in my non-walking day. I guess you could call it a freedom, a true sense of just me without any layering…
Thus I am intrigued by the idea that Christopher Ives proposed that walking is akin to a pilgrimage. Pilgrimage, said Ives, “takes the seeker away from daily life.” When we walk, at least temporarily, we are pilgrims leaving the dailiness behind to explore. He described walking as “sacred” in the way that walking “helps take us out of out little selves into the whole mountains and rivers mandala universe.” He described this in terms of entering a liminal space (see Day 5) Walking becomes a sacred practice and a means by which we can transcend our specifics to experience the wholeness of the universe and our interconnectedness.
The biblical narrative of creation included in the book of Genesis introduces God as creator. In the opening chapters God created the earth, nature, masculine, and feminine. Is it possible that part of the description of the “fall” is how we lose sense of this interconnection? Interconnection suggests a sense of responsibility, an awareness that my actions are not silo’d actions but instead potentially impactful to the whole in a meaningful way. Walking, according to Ives, is how we re-member a sense of interconnectivity.
So today is about acknowledging my walk as sacred and mindfully considering our shared interconnectivity.
Quote Source: Link to Amazon.com