Contemplative Walking

I recently watched African Queen, the 1951 movie where Humphry Bogart and Katherine Hepburn guide a small boat down a river in the wilds of Africa, trying to escape German troops during WWI. Bogart plays Charlie Allnut, a tough sailor who’s been delivering cargo to towns along the river. Hepburn plays prim and proper Rose, who had been serving in a village with her brother, a Methodist missionary. After tragedy strikes, it’s just the two of them. One morning after a night of drinking Charlie Allnut finds himself in trouble with Rose. Defending himself, he urges, “Have pity, Miss. It’s only human nature”. And in a classic line, Rose replies, “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”

Rising above nature highlights a worldview that found its ways into religion, spirituality, and culture for centuries. In the Christian tradition, a basic distrust of nature equated nature with sin and spirit with goodness. A more recent thread of Christian tradition sees the human spirit embedded in nature – affirming the earth and all its creatures as interrelated in a sacred web of life. We are created and sustained by the same God who created and sustains the earth and all its creatures.

These days there is widespread agreement – among theologians, scientists, mental health professionals – that through nature, everyone – no matter our religion or spirituality - can experience the sacred… through wonder and beauty, messiness and loss, unity and wholeness.

So often we often rush around, getting caught up in issues and hooked on screens. We disconnect and feel separate – both from our deepest selves and from the whole earth community of which we are a part.

Experiences of nature offer opportunities for us to awaken our senses, ground ourselves, and consider the possibilities of being refreshed and restored. When we encounter nature through a contemplative lens, we find that every creature, every created thing can be a window of revelation into the divine nature.

Contemplative walking is one practice you can try to encounter nature in this way. Christine Valters Paintner describes the practice of contemplative walking in nature here.

“Blessing of Earth”

Spirit of Abundant Earth,

Allow me to live in the knowledge that

I am of the earth, from the earth, and returning to the earth.

Tree of Life,

Rise up in me,

rooting me deeply in the ground

And inviting me to extend my branches far into the sky.

Spirit that rises like bread,

Knead me into the shape you desire for my life

And allow me to be nourishment for others.

Blessings of the earth be upon me.

May its taste, smell, and touch remind me of the abundance of God.

By Christine Valters Paintner, in Water, Wind, Earth & Fire