Walking

I walk all the time, but even in this wild place I love so much, most of the walking that I do is along familiar paths that I follow nearly every day. It's true that I walk further afield, too, sometimes much further, where everything is new—new in a different way than these madrone blossoms and douglas irises and lupines are new. And yet I don't walk like this nearly enough—just heading out the door in favor of what comes up next.

Instead, how often we make some list of tasks fixed and determinant—just like that other list we carry with us, the one with all the expectations we imagine that others hold for us.

But when we walk just for the helluvait, we can become as fluid as the world is—as fluid in the world as we are meant to be. 

Below are two quick reading suggestions for helping you walk out the door...

The first, Edward Abbey's "Walking," is full of memorable one-line slogans to slap on your bumper, and typical of Abbey, is sarcastic as hell. 

Abbey on walking:"Whenever possible I avoid the practice myself. If God had meant us to walk, he would have kept us down on all fours, with well-padded paws...He surely would not have made mountains...read more 

The second, by Kurt Vonnegut, is no less funny...or poignant. You'll be reminded that it's as easy (or as hard) to get off your butt and ramble in a city as it is in the wild.

Vonnegut: "I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it...read more

The other day I met a guy from Tuscany wearing this t-shirt: "The internet is down...so I've come outside a while." (He's the guy on the far left—with his back to you.) We were all working side by side clearing brush along the Rocky Creek road—the one way a vehicle can get in and out of here. And we did some good work together, too. But tomorrow morning I'm heading out a different way.

Mindfulness at Home

We like Karen Maezen Miller's "10 Tips for a Mindful Home" in this March issue of Shambhala Sun...

Wake with the sun
There is no purer light than what we see when we open our eyes first thing in the morning.

Sit
Mindfulness without meditation is just a word.

Make your bed
The state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity.

Empty the hampers
Do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life.

Wash your bowl
Rinse away self-importance and clean up your own mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky.

Set a timer
If you're distracted by the weight of what's undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand before the bell rings.

Rake the leaves
Rake, weed, or sweep. You'll never finish for good, but you'll learn the point of pointlessness.

Eat when hungry
Align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite. 

Let the darkness come
Set a curfew on the internet and TV and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest.

Sleep when tired
Nothing more to it.

—Karen Maezen Miller 

From the March 2010 issue of the Shambhala Sun.

Photo of Bet Giyorgis Church, Lalibela, by Mark Tuschman. 

East or West – what comes next?

Why this reluctance to begin to take a backward glance?

Is it because the future still beckons with promises and hardship?

A rainbow and a Kenyan post-election refugee camp – what could be more ambiguous than that?

Or is it simply because the present has such pressing requirements

…that none of us can afford to take our eye off that?

Still, here we are like a dancer with one foot inclining home

…and the other still needing to complete the arc it’s begun.

We’re also out of money, which isn’t beside the point, but it’s also not the only reason for this natural pause...as we plot how to raid our own slender retirement

…either to come home sooner than we might have thought

…or else to take the next turn ahead of us -- towards the east, towards India.

Our friend Cyprian emails: “…while everyone else in the world is worrying about the financial situation, you’re liquidating your retirement fund! That’s my kind of living!”

Or else it’s just plain foolishness.

We’ll find out, won’t we?

Either way, it seems like the perfect time for another yarn-- full of radiant faces

…and exotic topography.

So load up the saddle bags

…and brew yourself a tea or coffee.

A story from the Sinai desert is coming next.