Walking Practice

When I began a walking practice almost a month ago, I decided to walk to the top of a hill every day. It didn't have to be a huge ordeal, just a simple place where pavement or a trail flattened out. I live in SW Portland, so there was no lack of hills, and I found this practice really beneficial. There is something so rewarding about reaching the top of a hill. It always feels like an accomplishment, where the difficulty is rewarded with level ground. In the bigger picture of life, this is true as well. Physically walking to the top of hills has helped me mentally and emotionally make it to the top of hills as well. Instead of feeling like certain tasks or situations are impossible, I can imagine them as a small, or large, hill and just slowly work my way up. Our strides shorten, we must take smaller steps, and we must not look at the very top, but rather step by step.

The journey to Timberline Lodge was the same, only on a much grander scale. Each day, I told myself to not think about the entire trip. I was only going to think to the next stop sign, to the next turn in the road, the next few miles. And after 5 days, I could look back and realize all the little landmarks built up to one big one.  After 5 days, I had walked the entire way. It was a very humbling experience. I hurt a tendon in my heel on day 2, and spent much of the rest of the trip in pain. But the pain came and went. I could find a rhythm, and could find myself walking 14 miles on a hurt foot, without really even realizing how much I was in pain, or the significance of the distance I had traveled. I was simply putting one foot in front of the other, and observing how my body felt. Once I relaxed into the pain and the situation, it stopped hurting as much. My life is becoming more and more parallel to this trip, with painful moments that seem as if they will never leave. But the more I look back on these moments, I don't remember the pain. I remember that it was hard, but all I can see is how far I have come, and step by step I have walked my way into a new way of seeing myself and the world around me.

Timberline is really just a parking lot in the sky, but for this journey it was a goal that none of us could truly imagine reaching. Until we did. 11 of us started as mostly strangers, and ended up an entire support system. We accomplished something huge. Physically, mentally, and emotionally we walked ourselves into a new way of seeing things. Even if it was just for a moment. Walking is one of the most rejuvenating activities; when we slow ourselves down, we experience the world and ourselves differently. Over the course of 60+ miles, this has a very real impact. Wherever we all end up in life, we can look back and understand that for 5 days, we came together and walked up a hill together. We made it to level ground again.