Alastair Humphreys has cycled around the world, rowed the Atlantic, and walked across southern India. But lately he’s gone from big to small, from global and grand to local and familiar. He ordered a 12-mile square map of the area where he lives, and then he spent a year exploring each half-mile square on that map. The result? The world around him came alive again.
How might you do a bit of the same this month? How might you welcome in the “world nearby” more deeply?!
When I was a student in seminary, we had a class assignment to do a “beauty walk” in our neighborhood: to go out and walk, attuning ourselves to the beauty we find. It was a good exercise for me in a neighborhood where I had recently moved, and where just to the south of me was what everyone said was the “bad” part of town. Of course, there was beauty to be found there as well, and I was able to open myself to seeing it.
Where I live now, I have a nice house and I consider the garden its best feature. My wife and I have planted flowers and bushes, installed benches and patios, decorated with stone and wrought iron. Most days I take a few minutes to walk slowly around the yard. You could call it a beauty walk.
The trick for me in doing a beauty walk in my yard is to stay present to the beauty. It is easy to spend my time and mental energy noticing what needs to be fixed: weeds to pull, tomatoes to pick, sidewalk to sweep. Cultivating a mind-set of appreciating beauty requires quieting the judgmental mind that says tasks undone are a problem to worry about. Just as I needed to quiet the judgmental mind in my previous neighborhood that said some streets were “bad” areas. It is a spiritual practice to be present to what is, allowing appreciation to arise, and not to dwell on what is wrong or imperfect.
PRAYER:
Infinite world around me, flowing and changing, extending far beyond my knowing, may I be settled here and now.
May I see that this moment is perfect just as it is. May I be released from incessant worry about what could be or should be.
May all beings be at peace.
Amen.
Rev. Andrew Frantz
October 3, 2023