Walking The Earth
#thismorningwalk
I started walking, every morning, 8 years ago and haven’t stopped. Walking, for me, has been my way back to myself, a practice that brings me home.
This simple act, a morning walk, has become a daily ritual that has transformed my life. It began with a conscious decision to get outside, to adapt to all weather, under all the stars, next to all the birds - to return to the essentials. Outdoors is where I find ideas, comfort, awe, creativity, wisdom, community - all of the elements that remind me of who I am, beyond titles and labels.
I am a believer that we have to make time, not find time, for the things that make us, us. The outdoors is essential to who I am, but I believe it’s actually essential to who we all are. In my case, life had become getting in cars, sitting in meetings, running errands, producing - and completing - to do lists. I came to realize that what made me...me, was no longer part of my days. Looking back, the feeling of being overwhelmed by errands, conference calls, shoulds and have-to’s, and endless expectations, had overtaken me. I had lost my footing, my grounding. I needed to get back to a bigger sense of purpose - beginning with a fundamental intimacy with the earth.
During this time of Shelter in Place, Social Distancing and a new world with Covid19, a quiet morning walk has been my essential nourishment: physical, emotional, creative, and even spiritual. It’s the first meal of my day.
Walking had become my medicine, long before we spoke of vaccines and viral envelopes.
I walk the same loop every day. Out the front door, 5 am, 5.2 miles, 10,960 steps. I walk past the same barn. On the same path. Next to the same river. With the same headwind around that last turn. This conscious repetition is a form of meditation, designed with intentional familiarity. It’s almost as if I could do it blindfolded. Some days, on the backstretch, I close my eyes while walking for 10, 20, 30, 40 steps. Do I really know where I am? I wonder? Am I following my gut, my body, to the wisdom embedded in this moment? The mindlessness of the route itself brings mindfulness, because it is this walk that allows me to acknowledge and move the questions in my mind and heart.
I start many walks with an intention and by the end, I have escorted that intention, idea, solution, concern - around the loop. We have made friends with each other. We have rumbled, we have danced and we have said goodbye. My ideas change while I walk, sometimes with every step. By creating space for thoughts and feelings to rest, to become visible, I allow them to shift.
There is great power for me in the kinetic energy vs potential energy. To actually move something invisible forward, for me, requires a physical companion to do it For me that energy is walking.
To capture this journey, I started taking pictures on my walk. Snapping a photograph of the same dilapidated barn, taught me to see again, not simply look. It made me see, Really see a thing, as if for the first time. Over and over again, I was amazed at how much I had overlooked. What else had I missed all these years?
A walk makes me feel “Welcome to Right Now”. It teaches me to match my pace with the pace of the natural world.
After finishing a walk, I began posting the pictures on Instagram as a way to keep a record of these moments. It wasn’t for anyone else, it was for me. A visual diary. A history. A captured moment. A record of the unexpected snowstorm, the foggy sunrise, the lineup of ravens on the roof, the rain pouring off my hat brim.
This daily micro practice has informed life in ways I would never have expected. From new friendships (started by a simple comment on a photo) to collaborations with incredible makers and doers, and perhaps — most importantly — to a profound awareness of our connectedness. Now 8 years later we have a small tribe of people who “walk” together, even though they may be on the on the other side of the world. We were meant to walk. COVID19 has made this even more true, as we are in our homes. A simple walk, is the “new normal” luxury.
It has turned out that this time is my most valuable processing time. I often set an intention when I head out. It may be about trying to figure out a creative challenge at work, or a personal issue that I need space to understand. This moving meditation creates the space and pace I often need to understand a situation. Here I am in the place I am most comfortable, and I can allow my thoughts, my feelings, my brain to deconstruct and then reframe an issue. It turns the walk into both and escape and also a focused act. It is sometimes a challenge to fit it in, but I know that 100% of the time I am better for it.
It is the key to my operating system.
It is my act of radical self-care.
I have now circumnavigated the earth. Yes, in my own backyard, I have travelled 25,000 miles. And the last 100 miles I celebrated the mileage by inviting a few friends to join me for a mini-parade each day. We would lite up sparklers and walk the route together, as a way to witness - and propose a metaphoric toast - to this big life journey we all share.
Good things always happen on a walk. And, I am always grateful, never sorry, when I get home from one. Today, my daily walk is a sacred act, the kindest gift I can give myself.
Suggestions for building a practice:
1. Begin with something doable. A walk around the neighborhood.
2. Repeat for 5 days. Repeat again. The next thing time will have passed and it will have been 8 years.
3. Stay curious about what is possible. Starting a practice and staying with it deepens what you observe about yourself and others.
Creative Director