Dear Friends,

 

How much walking do you do?

 

I don't mean so-called power-walking which is liable to put you out of joint. Nor do I mean going for an organized hike wearing all the appropriate gear. And I certainly don't mean driving to the gym and getting on a walking machine! I'm referring to walking in the normal course of things, to get from A to B: walking as opposed to automatically jumping into the car or catching a bus.

 

Walking is good for you, good for health and breathing and posture. It's a natural, easy form of exercise: you just have to put one foot in front of the other. Unlike sport, it doesn't involve technique, training or competition.

 

Walking serves to harmonize body, breath, and earth. The basis of walking is repetition and as such it calms and soothes the soul and brings clarity to the mind. "Solvitur ambulando", declared St. Augustine, meaning broadly - if you have a problem, go for a walk and it will sort itself out.

 

And Kierkegaard, the Danish Christian thinker, wrote in a letter: "Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it."

 

While you walk, you inhabit the landscape and connect with it, in the same way as the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day. You notice and appreciate little things. "As Jesus walked..........he saw".

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Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine; he walked by the sea  - he walked on the sea; he went up the mountain; he carried his cross along the Via Dolorosa; he joined the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus walked - and the Christian life, following Jesus, is called the Christian walk: "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John 2:6 KJV)

 

Once St Francis of Assisi called together some novices to accompany him on a preaching tour of the villages round about. They passed through one village, then another.........and finally arrived back without a word having been spoken. "But, Father, I thought we were to preach". "We did preach - they marked us as we walked".

 

"Walk worthy of the Lord", St. Paul exhorts us - walk by faith, walk by the Spirit, walk in love.

 

When I go tramping over the hills

That look towards the sunlit sea,

Under a sky of windy clouds,

Christ of Emmaus, walk with me.

 

Blessings to all,

 

James Patrick