I am working on a book that one of my regular walkers Janie left with me. It’s entitled Walking To Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel. I think that he may be related to Stroopwaffel. Anyway, Andrew descides that he is going to walk across America and collect stories on a portable tape recorder. He is searching for a number of things and is receiving an incredible education in the process. Right now in the book he is in the desert in Arizona. It’s taken him six months to get that far from Pennsylvania.
Am quoting him in a moment but was struck by how this is similar to our experience in Spain. The ability of the trail to stress us out enough so we slip into another dimension is what I am getting at.
“Today, when I forget what I have learned and the questions start itching all over me again, I try to get back to the blankness of Arizona, the space in between the words.. The kind of walking I fell into there was called beauty-walking, I discovered later, in the Navajo Nation: it is a state of clarified connection, after my body and mind had been so exhausted that there wasn’t much strength left to hold up the heavy misperception of being a barricaded individual existing on his own, that burdensome belief that I was an isolated self, somehow separate from everything else. Atlas finally collapsing under the globe. Beauty-walking. It was quite like what that elderly walker Jerry Priddy called the white time. You can’t see anything and you’re not aware of anything, and it’s going on around you. It don’t amount to a lot, but the sum total is it’s a beautiful experience when you get through. It clears your head. You’re there. Beauty-walking, I was just there, without interpretation or analysis, without imposition or manipulation, and that felt a bit like not being there at all. Not being there at all, it was impossible for me to be against anything, even the headwinds. I was with everything. Beauty-walking was one of my absolute favorites. Whenever it came , all I could say was thank you.”
(page 277)
Yup, slipping in and out of another dimension seems like a valuable skill. The more you do it maybe the easier it becomes. In the end all we can say is thank you.
page 277 loves, Felipé.
Wow. I am working on Mindfulkness practice, and one of the chapters i n my book is about Walking Meditation. It is exactly this, in slightly different language. But not much different, actually. This is, for me, one of those “Timely; Pay Attention” posts. Delightful. Thanks
Hey Steve-O ~ hi. That just showed up in this random book. Yea, nice. Hello to the fam. Felipé.
Querido Felipe,
Thanks for sharing that text… it never ceases to amaze me when I read that walking with a pilgrim spirit creates such a similar experience even when we, pilgrims, are so different and our reasons for the journey are so our own…
John O’Donohue has these words to say this Celtic belief that what is key is to be in rhythm with our nature… maybe is because of the 9 months boot camp in the womb when all you hear is your mum’s heartbeat, maybe is why all ancient aboriginal rituals have drums, maybe that is why the rosary is a fixed repetition and also why other religions have prayer beans, maybe that is why Walking creates the same… one foot after the other…
As I write this at 6:20 in the bus, I am thinking that after being in the womb for 9 months and become a human being, the next experience I had “being in rhythm with my nature” for a considerable time, was “walking” the Camino. And I say that it was a experience of Beauty… Maybe Beauty “IS” being in rhythm with our nature… and walking and the rhythmic routine of the days (in Nature, sharing daily and multiple times a day, practicing gratitude, etc) in the Camino brought the rhythm… maybe that is why Phil’s Camino creates the same…
Thoughts on Beauty on a Friday going to the office at 6:20 Loves
Cris
Cris ~ thanks as always for you bus message. That must mean that the demonstrations have calmed down. Yes, the rhythm could be very important. Thanks for that. Felipé.x