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Dear Pilgrims*,
What a month! How many days do you think we can fit in a month time? 30? 31? I have serious doubts about the right answer.
This August extended like never before, honestly, I don’t remember how many days I had in the past 5 weeks. The stories, the lives, the people and the endless roads walked showed me (once again) that what we need to do every day to feel alive is very different from what we were taught in school, at home or by society.
Before saying goodbye to the summer I want to share with you two stories that touched me very deep and keep echoing in my heart.
First, the first story.
Recently talking with an WM alumni I understood more clearly a set of changes that took place in her life after the time we spent walking, an experience that took pl
ace almost one year ago. Family, relationships and work turned into a different direction, not better or worst, just different. Why different?
Mainly because this person felt truly free, free as a bird, in her own words. Free to a point that it became clear that you can do whatever your heart tells you to do. As a consequence you put in motion a set of actions, decisions and new behaviors wrapped around a layer of peace and happiness.
It doesn’t mean absence of challenges or problems, instead it means that you decide to put the very best of yourself while facing each of those moments. Usually our best version means choosing to love instead of hating, making peace instead of war and being present instead of absent.
Stop for a moment and watch outside the window. Can you see a bird? Pay attention and you might be surprisingly inspired for the rest of your day.
Time for the second story.
During last week program in Spain, our group stayed a couple of days in the Monastery of Oseira and one particular conversation with a brother of the community really made my day (maybe the year).
Someone during our talk, asked the Monk if one of his goals in life was to reach the eternity. After a short pause followed by a beautiful smile he said:
- No, I am not waiting for eternity. Actually that would be a tremendous contradiction, he added.
- If eternity fulfill the promise there is no beginning, middle or end to such reality. Which means that we already live in eternity, so there is no need to wait.
Despite the fact that human mind has incredible abilities we sometimes can get stuck in a certain way of thinking or acting. This “blockages” can build up slowly and last for a long time, touching all aspects of our personal and professional life.
If we don’t pay attention our consciousness can become crystallized and that can be the beginning of a problem. We start criticizing everything that “falls” outside of the norm, the current paradigm or the socially acceptable.
Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. Our notion of time keeps shrinking and everything starts looking pretty much the same (we all know that feeling).
Wait a little more 🙂
If we know what is important and essential in our lives, we can find the courage to do things differently, to change at deepest of our core. These are the moments when a practice like the Walking Mentorship can be useful, supporting you to take the first step. In October we walk again in the Camino of Santiago…and this time, maybe with you!
You probably heard that a mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. This movement is usually described as mind expansion, which doesn’t mean that your brain grows larger 🙂 but instead that you are creating new electrochemical connections between brain cells. And this is exactly what we do, step by step, not counting the kilometres but making the kilometres count.
Keep walking with me,
João Perre Viana
Founder of Walking Mentorship
* Pilgrim – A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey (usually on foot) to a special place.
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