I walk everywhere. These days I walk to commute. I walk to get lost. And found. I walk to process. I walk to see the world anew. I walk to remember who I am, and where I am. I walk alone and with my daughters and my partner. I walk with friends and sip matcha. I walk to the edge of the Earth, where the ocean meets my toes, and
here I stand.
I’ve often thought about walking as necessary for growth. No matter my destination it feeds me, like water. When I move my feet, however slowly or quickly, I remember how finite time is.
Pema Chodron, one of the most notable American Tibetan Buddhist teachers of our time offers us this-
“You are the sky. Everything else—it’s just the weather.”
I love this sentiment. It reminds me of our breath- the changing patterns, the ebb and flows, the moment of transition where our inhale finds us and gives us something more than we expect. I recently learnt that a wave of emotion is held in the body for 30-90 seconds, everything after that is just story.
Stories have saved my life. Lifted me out of myself and brought me back to our larger world. I traffic in stories- inside prisons that I work in and inside my own head. On July 20 1969, Neil Armstrong walked across the moon and said,
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
I sometimes think about this line when I’m out walking, this text above (and me walking in the trees above)- how something so small, could be something so big. How walking onto the moon changed him, changed what we believed to be possible.
As move towards our weekends, towards ourselves, an invitation to walk with these questions-
What are you walking towards?
What are you walking away from?
If you took one small step today, what might happen?
Take a walk to nowhere and everywhere all at once. See the horizon. Eat a fly. Let the tears fall or find rain on your face. See what clearing is there for the taking.
with love, Nikki