The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We heard about John Francis’ 50 year walking pilgrimage. John received many kindnesses along the way. He entrusted himself to the world and recognized our interbeing with each other and the world. We explored befriending our bodies and minds. John’s story inspired us to entrust ourselves to the world.
We heard the story of Planetwalker John Francis today. John has been walking for the environment for the past 50 years. We how his walking experiences became a sacred journey in his interview with NPR journalist Manoush Zomorodi. We learned about his personal transformation during his many years of silent walking which he shared during his interview with L.A. Times journalist Sammy Roth. You can view, Planetwalker, the recently released 30 minute documentarYou can learn more about the Planetwalk Africa John is doing in collaboration with GLOBE(Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment).
You can view, Planetwalker, the recently released 30 minute documentary. The film manages to artfully reflect the different chapters of an activist’s life.
We heard Matti Weingast’s beautiful poem – Mitta or Friend.
Guided Reflection
Welcome. Last week we reflected on the nature of stories that lead to change. We explored how mindfulness can help us to recognize our heart-stories. These are the stories told by others that have shaped our lives. And they are the stories we bring to life through our compassionate choices.
This week I was thrilled to learn about Planetwalker, a new documentary short that tells the story of John Francis. In 1971 John witnessed two oil tankers collide under the Golden Gate. 840,000 gallons of oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay and was taken out by the tide and then it flooded back on to Marin County and parts of the bay. In 1972 John began walking for the environment and continued to walk for the next 22 years. In 1973 John took a vow of silence that lasted for 17 years.
I met John in the late ’70’s. We were both living in the small Northern California coastal town of Pt. Reyes Station. He walked barefoot much of the time playing the banjo. He gestured dramatically and wrote in a notebook to communicate. He embarked on a pilgrimage around the world to raise environmental consciousness.
In March of this year, John told NPR news journalist, Manoush Zomorodi:
I guess my own journey is a pilgrimage that I’ve been on for all these years. I grab my banjo and I walk. I think walking is essential. And for me, it’s a sacred journey. Walking is sacred.
John’s been walking for 50 years. He’s walked across the US, walked and sailed through the Caribbean, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. In 2014 he walked through China. John is 78 years old now and walking a 6,000 mile journey from Cape Town to Cairo. He walks for children everywhere and invites anyone to join him. He works with local communities and schools, in collaboration with the GLOBE Program. GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is an international science and education program that focuses on promoting scientific literacy and environmental awareness.
John recently told L.A. Times journalist Sammy Roth about his personal transformation during so many years of walking in silence. He witnessed the power of kindness during his 7 year trek across America.
I have to say, I came up with this kindness thing while walking across America. And I mean all of America. I took seven years, stopping and working and going to school. I didn’t just zip across.
Especially as a Black man in the ‘80s, I relied on the kindness of strangers — people who happened to be walking down the road and saw me and offered me a place to stay. Kindness seemed to transcend all of the things we put around us, like race and politics and social standing. Kindness allowed people to say, “Do you need a place to stay tonight? Can I help you with a meal? I see you don’t have any money.
John began to realize a sense of interbeing with humans and more than humans. He recalled:
As I walked across the country, I could see people’s consciousness shift from us being outside of the environment to us being part of it. What I didn’t see was people making the next jump — if we’re part of the environment, then our first opportunity to treat the environment in a sustainable way is to look at how we treat each other.
I chose Earth Day to start speaking because I wanted to speak for the environment. And the environment had changed from just being about . . . pollution and loss of species and habitat and climate change — to being about how we treat each other. It was about human rights and civil rights and gender equality and economic equity, and all the ways we related to each other.
Mindfulness seems to be woven through John’s life. He chose a very different way to be in the world – though he didn’t speak, he communicated very powerfully. He seemed to entrust himself to the world. His walking life obliged him to enter the relationship of accepting the helpful kindness of others from the people on the road and from the Universities where he studied – in silence – along the way. He affirmed what is sacred by walking his sacred journey.
Here is Matty Weingast’s poem Mitta or Friend. I think it resonates with John’s story:
Full of trust you left home,
and soon learned to walk the Path –
making yourself a friend to everyone and making everyone a friend.
When the whole world is your friend,
fear will find no place to call home.
And when you make the mind your friend,
you’ll know what trust
really means.
Listen.
I have followed this Path of friendship to its end.
And I can say with absolute certainty –
it will lead you home.
I invite you to bring yourself fully to wherever you are on the Path. We sit together befriending one another on the Path. I invite you to bring awareness to your body meeting Earth’s body. Is it possible to sit in a way you can befriend your body? Befriend Earth’s body? You might rock from side to side, forward and back. Take a few deep breaths and let them go.
Feel your body’s inner rhythms. Feel breathing. You can explore the way chest, ribs and lungs expand. You might place a hand over your heart and a hand over your belly. Enjoy softness and ease with gently swelling in-breath, releasing out-breath. Explore the cool whisper of air moving into nostrils and the warm current flowing out. When you’re ready, rest your arms and hands.
I invite you to sense your bones. Sense how you are touching Earth through your pelvis as you sit or through your whole body as you are lying down. Know how your bones rebuild themselves as gravity’s pull draws you to Earth. Sense how you experience this support from inside and from outside – above and below and all around. Can you draw on this support to find ease and steadiness?
Is it possible to sit in a way that you can befriend your mind? Explore mind as body, body as mind. Is it possible to befriend all parts of yourself? Can you meet them with gentleness? Kindness? You may notice a sense of trust arising in befriending. Trust in being. Trust in being inextricably part of the world.
Entrust yourself to this sitting, here, now. This in-breath. This out-breath. You can explore inner spaciousness. What is it like to be the space in which all is perceived? I invite you to open to space outside the boundaries of self. Explore a space in which the changing weather of memory, emotion and thought can move through you. Perhaps landing or carrying you away. In the foreground or the background. You are always welcome to come back to Body meeting Earth’s Body.
In this slow time of awareness we can recognize every fleeting moment is precious. Every being on the Path is precious. Loving presence arises. Compassion arises. The Path itself is sacred.
Go gently. Begin again and again by allowing. Allow ease to arise. Trust this refuge of loving awareness. Begin again by feeling breathing. Allowing and letting go happening all on its own.
Together we can follow the Path of friendship to its end.