Ginny Wilson-Peters' Blog

Although I’m out of the office this week, I’d like to share this post with you.  Enjoy!

At first, it seemed like a simple assignment.  I was taking a class in Spiritual Perspectives and my assignment was to spend one half-day (minimum 3 hours) walking.  As I read the assignment I felt tightness in my stomach.  I found myself wondering if I could split it into smaller sections and not have to commit so much time in one chunk.  I decided that wasn’t the idea of the assignment, so I scheduled a time to go.  The first day didn’t work because it was raining and I definitely wasn’t interested in walking in the rain.  Then I began thinking about squeezing the walk into my schedule during the week.  I looked at one day where I had just 3 ½ hours in between two appointments and I considered using that time.  Again, I decided against that strategy because I knew I didn’t want to be under a time crunch and begin rushing myself.

The day I finally chose was a beautiful Saturday.  I left home at 9:00 in the morning and walked for over three hours in sunshine.  The grass and trees were green and the flowers were in full bloom and fragrant.

Before I left I found myself “preparing” for my walk.  I wondered what I needed to take.  Did I need to take money for an emergency?  Did I need to take something to drink?  Should I take my house key in case no one was home when I returned?  Did I need more clothes?  I ended up with some water, a little money, sunglasses, and myself.  And I discovered that was all I needed.

My need to be over prepared reminded me of my inner need to be prepared for change.  I used to have nighttime dreams about trying to snow ski.  In the most powerful dream, I was busy making preparations to go skiing: trying to find the right shoes and the right poles, etc.  When I finally made it to the top, there was barely any snow left and I was only able to ski down the hill one time.  It wasn’t much fun because the snow was mostly melted.

I didn’t understand the meaning of the dream until much later when I was telling a friend about my plans to leave my previous job, get a PhD in Psychology and open my own leadership coaching practice.  She looked at me with incredible kindness and asked why I felt I needed a PhD.  At that moment, I thought about the dream and it suddenly made sense.  The dreams had been telling me that I didn’t need a bunch more credentials in order to follow my heart and pursue a new career.  I just needed to make a decision and make it happen.  She reinforced my conclusion when she said it me, “Ginny, it isn’t the credentials you bring, it’s the passion.”

Back to the walk.  At the beginning, I found myself making up “rules” that weren’t clear in the assignment.  Was it okay to talk to people along the way?  Was it okay to stop and rest if I wanted to?  I decided the answer to both questions was “yes” but found it interesting that I even wondered about the “rightness” and rules of the assignment.  This too is a pattern in my life.  I like rules; but usually I like rules so that I can break them.

I walked through residential areas and I walked on the bike path.  Initially, I thought about walking the entire three hours along the bike path because the surroundings were much more serene. However, I found myself beginning my walk in a residential area in Bettendorf.  I’d driven through the area before but hadn’t walked.  I found I could notice much more on foot than when I was driving.

One thing I noticed was a great deal of trash on the side of the road; I wished I had something to put it in.  When I stopped to get another bottle of water, I asked for a plastic bag and used that to put the trash into.  I was reminded of Thomas Moore’s discussion in Care of the Soul about how we are internally affected by the condition of our external world (and vice versa).  I didn’t want my outer world to be full of trash and I wanted to do my part in cleaning it up.

In order to get from the residential neighborhood to the bike path, I chose to walk along Middle Road.  It occurred to me then that there was a purpose in walking the route I’d chosen so far, as opposed to just being on the bike path.  The outer environment was full of noise and pollution and distractions and yet I found an incredible ability to walk along the road, mindful of the external world, but also mindful of my inner being.  For me, it was a lesson in integrating my inner and outer world.  My walk was not about escaping from the noise of the outer world but learning how to blend the outer and inner world together.

Take a walk today. It will be good for your body and your soul.  (And please take a trash bag to clean up the roads).