Postcards from my walk

"We have confused velocity with accomplishment... Convinced if that we just do more and go faster we will succeed, we often lose the pulse of our lives. We can find it again by walking."

Nobody speaks to me the way the author Julia Cameron does right now.

Following my experiment with her Morning Pages via The Artists Way I am now happily devouring her second book, Veins of Gold. Most recently her chapter on the power (quoted above) of taking what she describes as, “the artists walk.”

I’ve been taking these kind of walks - in pursuit of the “pulse” of my own life - for some time now, I just didn’t know to call it that.

Some walks are magic

Many years ago I spent a summer living in a tiny English village called Zennor, in Cornwall near the town of St Ives.

Just a street long, Zennor boasted an ancient looking pub at one end ( D.H Lawrence was said to have spent his evenings there, circa 1915-1917) and a hostel at the other, where I worked.

Located on a particularly vital section of prehistoric ley lines, the tiny village tended to attract people eager to find spiritual re-alignment. My then-colleague Julie, called them “seekers”.

At the time I was nursing what I thought was irreparable heartbreak and found all of this information very appealing.

Keen to benefit from the magic, too, I spent my days off walking the cliffs from Zennor to St Ives with only my Walkman, (mainly Tori Amos, The Cure and David Bowie), for company.

The return trip took several hours and passed through fields and fields of wildflowers, looking out onto rugged cliffs covered in moss and onto the horizon of dazzling blue/green water.

See for yourself, it was simply spectacular.

And, as it turned out, very healing.

February’s question: Who are you, un-interrupted?

This question had me racing for a pen so I could think of my answer straight away.

A friend shared it via Felecia Hatcher’s Instagram (@feleciahatcher). She’s the author of Genius Jam & Uninterrupted.

Whatever you’re doing this month this is a question genuinely worth some reflection time. Maybe while walking.

As Felecia says: “You need to ask bigger, richer, more expansive questions of yourself and the people around you so you can know what your next best move can be.”

Amen.

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I’m using this space to share monthly reflections on walking, reading and questions that connect me with who I am and what I most want from life.

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