I could have stayed busy and important things would no doubt have been done. But the road was calling my feet, the sun was calling my name and I knew that my soul needed a good long walk. I packed up my library books (still being productive) and set off on foot to the library, about an hours walk away through the pretty Twenty Valley on a windy, narrow road used mainly by the locals.

Walking is my prayer these days connecting me to the rhythms of creation, allowing my soul to recognize an ancient pace and my awareness to expand toward the explosion of growth that is late spring/early summer in the Niagara Peninsula. Please do not read into this that all of my life is this spacious and contemplative, for many good, mostly good and not so good things fill the other hours of my days at a considerably higher average speed. But it does feel like a marvellous discovery that it’s the slowing down that grounds me for that gruelling pace.

So if the pace of your life is driving you mad – take to the road by foot for awhile and let your soul breathe deeply. Try it.