As we roam, our imaginations take the cue. Wandering, getting lost on purpose, allows us to learn by going. A practice of walking is “realization in action”, a moving meditation in the here and now that helps widen our focus by moving our intelligence from the hegemony of the head into the whole body, expanding into and more easily connecting with, the world.
Rhythmic movement transfers energy from left logic to right artist brain where inspiration arrives in the discovery of new perspectives as we tap into inner resources, and saturate the senses in the wisdom of the natural world. Henry David Thoreau (1986 in Glick) viewed it as genius and held “the art of walking” in a nearly spiritual capacity where insight followed sight. He wrote that in the Middle Ages, one who walked in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was called a ‘Saint of the Earth’, Sainte Terre or ‘saunter-er’. Today, those who wander are not usually noted for this particular genius despite the fact that every significant religious leader seriously wandered (often for years) until each made a world-shifting return!
When we literally take our ideas out for a walk, letting the primacy of experience flow in and through us, paying attention to the beauty of the small and the ordinary, we begin to recognize the world as ensouled where everything has a life of its own. This tends to in/form and grow our compassion. Many of our indigenous friends already know this. Know to listen to light, to heed the intuition of the river, attune to the voice of the wind, converse with the invisibles and the ancestors, respect mountain patience and honour the wisdom of the stars. Know that we must let the world shape us rather than the other way around.
Infamous itinerants, like cultural ecologist, David Abram and poet/rover, David Whyte with his new work, Pilgrim, will be here this year to re-mind us. And there will be other seasoned wanderers - courageous ones who dare to the unpredictable frontier of their lives bringing curiosity and joyful ability to share what they have been called to along the way.
This calendar is filled with hospitable ways to let go of always being wise and right, to let our animal bodies “love what they love”, and to trust in each other because so much is at stake now. And if we fail to create the necessary 'psychic elbow room' required for deep listening, self-reflexive practices and the open spaces required for vision and reciprocal relationships that invite conscious awareness, change and the strengthening of what our venerable teacher, Joanna Macy calls our “moral imagination”, then we may miss our chance for life…sustaining. Life. Changing.
Those who dare to go forth now, to bring their own uniqueness and gladness may in fact be the ones to inherit the earth as they will be so beautifully equipped to let their imaginations wander widely (and wildly) enough to dream into the impossible. Let these lifelong learning opportunities generously feed and nourish your soul, provide the companionship, support and skills along the way necessary for you to see with new eyes that open to wonder as you wander forth with confidence and compassion.
We’ll meet you there!
"Are you coming? Good -
now it is time" ~ W. Stafford
Hilary Leighton, M.Ed., Director
Continuing Studies
Visit us at cstudies.royalroads.ca
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