Walk and Talk

Annual Meeting is next Sunday, May 19th, at 10am.

You can watch the Recording HERE

I met with a Pilgrim this week.  Someone who slowed down the pace of her life to a walk so that she could deeply Listen.  

The pace of our lives has gotten so fast that sometimes that it seems we’ve lost touch with ourselves and other people.  We’re rushing so fast and for what?  Often, we’re literally rushing around our houses trying to remember what was so important that we are rushing around for it.  We’re living in this constant state of panic over things that were so important we forgot what it was.  

There’s this sense of isolation and “too much”.  We seem to have lost faith in the world, faith in one another, and our faith in the something bigger.  

We avoid each other, because it’s “easier” in our already “too much” worlds.  Even our gifts are tinged with avoidance.  “Here’s money for a coffee for the next person that comes in” kind of giving.  We hope the “pay it forward” concept will make the world a better place.  And then…we carry on.  

We don’t buy another person a mug of coffee and then ask them to sit down with us. PAUSE.  We don’t talk to each other anymore.  

We’re afraid to.  We look at social media and people annoy us.  We are bombarded by the news and it scares us.  We’re constantly taking in an influx of the newsworthy awful and the social media awful and then our near awful.  It all seems so big and we’re so small.  

We keep feeding the fears and what do we do when we’re afraid?  PAUSE.  We hide.  Or we fight.  Or we run (also hiding).  What do we do when we feel small?   PAUSE.  We hide.  Or run.  So many of us are hiding and fighting.  

We might wonder…how much of the news that we take in is a real reflection of the world?  We think it’s the whole world and everywhere, but how much, what percentage, of “news” actually makes up our lives?  Where and what is the rest of our real life and what percentage makes up that?  Is the new really the most important “real” of our lives?  PAUSE

Maybe the message we’re not hearing is to buy the coffee and then also sit together with one another at the table and talk.  To not do, but to be with one another.  Maybe spreading the message is listening, noticing, talking, and then helping.  

Earlier this week, I read a blog post about a woman in an airport bathroom trying to get a splinter out of her finger.  Someone noticed, stepped in, and helped.  It’s one of the things I love about traveling.  We’re always slightly vulnerable and at the mercy of strangers, systems, and one another.  It brings out the best and the worst in us.  The worst is usually people in fear around this vulnerability.  There’s a lot of the best in people.  People who know what it’s like to be vulnerable and want to help other people.  We can, and do, notice, listen, and help.  

We don’t do this when we’re glued to our phones and the far off news at the expense of what’s right in front of us.  We don’t do this when we pull out our cameras at the expense of what’s right in front of us.  To be the first…the first to know and the first to share at the expense of noticing, listening, and helping.  

When we actually talk to strangers, instead of assuming their story, we realize that everybody isn’t a terrible driver, a terrible parent, a thoughtless French person, or a selfish American.  When we talk to one another…really talk to one another…we become human.  

Maybe that’s the message.  It’s walking and talking with one another that’s meant to be spread to the ends of the world.  Listening.  Noticing.  Helping.  

“Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise.”

This week, we hosted a pilgrim on her pilgrimage.  You can learn more about Susan on her website listed on the back of our bulletin.  Susan is following a lifelong call to walk from the East to the West Coast.  PAUSE.  To slow down her life to the pace of walking.  

Just imagine the faith and hope needed for a pilgrimage like that.  PAUSE.  Imagine the fears and worries to be overcome.  The faith and trust necessary in fellow human beings and that something bigger.  

She is at the mercy of others opening their homes to provide a safe shelter each night.  She is at the mercy of drivers on the roads and other people on the path.  This is scary, vulnerable, and brave.  And, you know what, most people want to be helpful!  

The pace of walking is slow, slow, and slower.  

We don’t even walk slow.  PAUSE.  We usually walk to be productive.  To accumulate the 48 mountains, the 52 Views, the highest, the prettiest, and the bests.  We walk to accumulate miles.  We walk to compete with ourselves and with others.  

When was the last time we wandered?  Or walked to walk?  Walked not to get miles or even for health reasons, but for the sake of walking, listening deeply, and maybe talking?  No phone. No music. No audiobook. No distractions or multi-tasking bonuses.

No wonder we’re frazzled.  No wonder we’ve lost our tea, coffee, and glasses again.  No wonder we’ve lost sight of what matters most.  We’re still hiding and running from….

It took Susan the first month of walking alone just to begin to really understand what this walk was really about.  A month of walking every day to really listen to herself.  We don’t even hear ourselves in this busy, frazzled world.  

There is so much to be learned when we turn off the noise outside of ourselves.  We learn what is deeply precious and meaningful…transcending of time and place.  Something real and true to each and every one of us.  Our humanness. Our sacredness.  Our connectedness.  

When we really listen, we discover the real lives and real stories around and in us.  We learn that people are good and helpful.  We realize that the troublesome are fewer and farther between than we thought.  We find, when we cultivate Quiet, that we are better able to find our own source of Compassion for ourselves and others (including those we find troubling).    

Maybe our work is both bigger and also slower than we imagine. Instead of doing more, perhaps, we do less and in doing less together we create and cultivate…more.  

Perhaps it’s time to stop running and hiding and to be fully present for our world exactly as it is.  Maybe it’s time to truly listen to know what it is we are called to do.  If we have no time to listen and receive…truly how can we possibly have anything to give? 

Let’s take some time to slow down and listen if only for a short period this week.  Listen to the flowers unfold, the leaves awaken, or the sound of a cup of coffee with someone else. When we stop talking to Walk, we learn how better to listen.  To the earth, to ourselves, to God (whatever that means to you), and to one another.  Let us take some time to slow our pace down to a Walk…as if we are pilgrims journeying to something deeply meaningful.