PRAYING WITH THE FEET

CAWSAND TO RAME (and back)

A month ago we had a family holiday in Kingsand/Cawsand – adjoining Cornish villages which a hundred years ago were split between Devon and Cornwall.  Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, so I put on my boots and set out to walk to Rame Head and back – about six miles.  It was a surprisingly spiritual experience.

NOT IN CONTROL 

The first thing that hits you if you are walking ing the middle of the country is that you are not in control.  If you are in a car you can decide to speed up or slow down.  If you are walking, your speed is limited to your walking speed.  If you are going to be late for supper, you’re just going to be late for supper.  (I wasn’t).  In London you have the illusion of being in control of making choices of transport etc.  Not so on a Cornish coastal path.  It’s not even a matter of relinquishing control.  You are not in control.  That is the first and profoundly spiritual lesson to take away from hiking. 

THE PATH

Once I had made the decision to do the walk, I simply had to walk whatever the pathway was like.  After a long dry summer it was in face hard and easy walking .  But if it had been muddy and slippery, there was nothing I could do about it.  Because I had sturdy boots, the steady impact of the path on them was pleasurable and almost musical.  It emphasised that I was a material, physical being, in communication with a physical, material world.

LIVING SIMPLY

For lunch I did not have a choice of food.  I had only what I had packed in my rucksack.  I thought how nice it would be to have a tea of coffee with it.  Not on the coastal path!  I was accustomed to starting the day with a latte at my regular Caffe Nero.  At Rame Head I had just two choices:  to be disgruntled that I was not having coffee, or just to accept it.  I knew I was not going to die of thirst before I made my way back to our Kingsand cottage – and if there was a danger of that, there was nothing I could do about it anyway.  The choice – a spiritual choice – was between resentment (against the universe?) or acceptance.   

CREATION

There is nothing  like the South West coastal path to bring you up sharp against the majesty of creation.  Whether having a short break on the first headland or having lunch at Rame Head, the view of the cliffs, the sea and the distant headlands is breath-taking.  A little girl was dragging her father as far as they could go down the end of Rame Head to find a witch.  I warned them that they were near the cave where a ferocious dragon lived.  They happily embraced the adventure.  But who knows?

WALKING ALONG 

I find that if I am going for a long walk, a good pair of boots will settle me into. a rhythm, on which my mind can float free.  I am conscious of my regular stepping ,and always aware where the nature of the path may require me to change step. Merely walking steadily has a calming effect.  For me it becomes akin to prayer.  During difficult stretches I can use a simple repetitive prayer to keep my mind on the walk.  Sometimes I use the Orthodox prayer – almost a mantra – ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.  Another, a homegrown one, is a meditation on the Trinity: ‘Abba Father, Jesus Lord, Spirit of Truth, Hallelujah’.  

A deeper level is reached when I simply accept the rhythm of my boots without any particular thought, just conscious of my legs carrying me forward, the boots supporting my feet, the wind on my face etc.  Is this meditation?  Perhaps.

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

I was not alone in walking the coastline path on a fine  Saturday morning.  There was always a friendly greeting between hikers, but no particular conversations.  No one spoilt the atmosphere by relating the latest story about Trump.  The path and the cliff were enough. One lady kindly took my photo at Rame Head.  And at a tiny car park, a young woman helpfully confirmed the way to get to Wiggle (seriously!) when I found the map a bit confusing.   There is a quiet recognition that we are all part of the family of mankind, and that strangers are just friends we have not yet met.  

PAIN

By the time I was two thirds of the way round, I realised that I was getting a blister on my right heel.  Guess what I could do about it?  Nothing!  In the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ Lawrence burns a match down to his fingers.  A fellow officer asks him, ?What’s the trick, Lawrence?”  The reply:  ”The trick is not minding the pain.”  It was not a severe pain, I just  had to keep going. It did not stop the enjoyment of the last part of the walk when I was going through farmland down to Cawsand.  Then I walked on the beach with Linda.  The following day, Sunday, I went to church, which meant a stiff 45 minute climb to the 14th century ‘Maker Church’.  On Sunday afternoon Linda produced some plasters which I used to sort my foot out.  An important lesson, spiritual and otherwise, don’t let pain, or the fear of pain stop you or slow you down!

A THOUGHT TO END WITH

Pilgrim!

When your boat, long moored at anchor,

Gives you the illusion of being a house,

Put out to sea!

Save your boat’s journeying soul,

And your own pilgrim soul,

Cost what it may.

(Dom Helder Camara)