"Solvitur Ambulando" - St. Augustine

“A walk outside serves us far more than pacing around in our mind.” R. Ogunlaru

Often in the Bible, we see the metaphor of “walking” as a description of our Christian life. Paul, in particular, likes to use this metaphor - “walk by faith”, “walk by the Spirit”, “walk in Him [Christ]”, “walk worthy of your calling”. Even Jesus calls Himself “the Way”, meaning we follow Him as the One who leads us to God.

Walking has emotional and physical connections in our lives as well as spiritual. There’s a connection between the brain and the body which is becoming increasingly obvious the more neuroscience finds its place in the discussion of a person’s integrated existence. It’s as if God knew what He was doing when He created us - mind, body, soul!

Personally, I’ve found so much benefit from the habit of (almost) daily walking. Even more than exercise for my body, it’s exercise for my mind and soul. It doesn’t matter what anxiety is rising up in my body at the beginning of my walk, it’s always synthesized or integrated into my heart, mind and soul by the end of the walk. If not, I just keep walking until it is!

It makes me think of St. Augustine’s quote, “It is solved by walking.” Without knowing all the neuroscience we have at our fingertips now, St. Augustine realized intuitively that the forward movement of his body kept his mind, heart and soul moving forward too.

My anxieties are usually the result of not being able to control an aspect of my life. Feeling like I have no say-so, or authority to do anything, or to change an outcome. I often feel immobilized by anxiety or fear. Yet walking gives me a path forward. It helps me see I can move toward joy, healing, and connection with God, and that the immobilization I feel is only in “my mind”. As my body literally moves forward, it makes space for me to process whatever’s going on in my head, heart or soul. This is how I best “hear” from God. My feet moving forward, rhythmically touching the physical ground, creates a sacred and safe space for me to engage with God. It’s a literal place where I can “walk by faith” in the middle of my nonsensical anxiety.

There’s a dis-membering that happens to our minds and hearts over the course of our days, weeks and years living in this disintegrated world. Eventually all this dis-membering makes its way to our souls, and we begin to feel disconnected to God. Walking helps re-member the parts of us that are disconnected to God.

Because of deep hurts I’ve experienced over the past few years, and because of how hard and difficult the healing process has been, I’ve decided to go on a long walk to help me heal. A 125 km walk. The trail I’m taking is part of the Camino de Santiago route through Portugal and Spain, ending in the city of Santiago de Compostela where supposedly St. James’ bones are buried in the cathedral there. (I don’t know anything about that, nor am I too interested in it, but it’s part of the package, so I’ll guess I’ll take a look).

I’m not sure what will be the result of all this walking. Only God knows. But I do believe walking is a good place to begin. As I walk, I’ll listen to the book of Romans. I’ll hear Paul’s words encouraging me to walk by faith and not by sight. I’ll look eagerly toward our Bible study this fall when we’ll have the chance to walk, metaphorically at least, through the book together. 

I’ll plan to meet you there. Buen Camino, fellow pilgrim.