Walking to Awaken

Every month, for the past year, I’ve photographed this coulee creek and the black poplar that leans lovingly over its countless moods.

In the hidden part of my heart 
You will make me know wisdom.  -Psalm 51

In a directive not nearly as banal as it first appears, St Benedict said, “If you want to pray, then you should pray.” The same holds for walking. If you want to walk, then you should walk.

Rise to the kitchen. Drink some water. Stretch. Speak kindness to your limbs.

Look out your window and see the sky. Let its patterns populate the margins of your gaze. Trust the sky’s unveiling to show you what to wear. Retrieve your walking stick from behind the door and step out assuredly into the glory of the day.

Stand on your stoop and whisper a blessing upon the earth, upon yourself.

Bring to mind nothing so much as the terrain around you. Revoke all thoughts that ambush and stroll easily toward your trail, park, or open field.

When we walk we naturally go to the fields and woods; what would become of us if we walked only in a garden or a mall? -Henry David Thoreau

You too will be drawn to the woods. A narrow creek lined with willow and poplar, and birch drenched in sunlight.

Swing your limbs and find your rhythm. Listen to the earth through the soles of your feet. Even now, it sings of mercy.

Notice the sweep of air. Feel the breeze with your face. Breathe it. Taste it. Smell it. Every season has its own fragrance, and every day has its own bouquet.

Notice the liturgy of light. Open your eyes and let the spectral yellow of wild buttercup reach you. Take in every reflection, a verdant glint from a blade of grass, a flash of rainbow from a crystal of snow. Every season has its own radiance, every minute its own luminance.

Hear the jazz of switchgrass against your legs. Listen to the chorister of rain. Turn your ear to the lord of wind, its gusts of grace that carry winged seeds. Pause at the benediction of a white-crowned sparrow.

If you look for the truth outside yourself, it gets farther and farther away. Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step. It is the same as me, yet I am not it. Only if you understand it in this way will you merge with the way things are. -Zen master Tung-Shan

To merge with what is given, by heeding that which is given, is reason enough to walk. And if you want to walk, well then, you should walk.

---