A healing, enriching journey – report by Marianne
Marianne from Alphen aan de Rijn was the 15,256th pilgrim the Walk of Wisdom. She made an important decision during her journey and wrote the report below. Thank you for your soulful journey Marianne, what you write is moving. You make us happy with what we do.
Walking the Walk of Walk of Wisdom has brought me so much, it’s almost indescribable! Still, I’ll try.
I walked the tour from September 11 to 17, 2023 and had lovely weather all week. It was the first time that I went out on my own for a week and walked for days on end, with luggage, without knowing in advance where I was going to spend the night… It’s all pretty exciting!
Still, I consciously chose to walk the Walk of Wisdom on my own. I hoped it would bring me an answer to an issue I had been struggling with since I had been stuck at home with a burnout.
I have found most of the sleeping addresses with the help of Friends on the bike, including my first sleeping address in Nijmegen. That first night, before I was to start the trip, I was tossing and turning in my bed: what was I getting myself into? I had never walked for days in a row, it was going to be sweltering hot and then I had to walk with a pack. Would I be able to reach my second sleeping address in Groesbeek?
My hostess was very sympathetic the next morning. I was allowed to make bread for lunch and the bed was available all week, so if I needed a place to sleep on the way, I could go to her. A nice idea! In good spirits I stepped out the door around half past eight, on my way to the Stevens Church.
From there, the route is very clearly described and to confirm that you are walking well, you always see the angel or ‘the grower of mother earth’. Most of the time you walk in beautiful nature reserves and you don’t encounter anything or anyone. The perfect environment to completely unwind and start feeling again instead of just being ‘in your head’.
Already on day two, in the fields near Groesbeek, I had an answer to my question. I felt that I shouldn’t continue in the position I had at the time, because it didn’t make me happy and I didn’t really want to. Before, I wouldn’t have wanted to admit that to myself, because hey, you finish what you started and you don’t give up….
The rest of the week beautiful and wonderful things happened that helped me to have faith in the future: Where one door closes, another door opens, something will probably come my way where I feel at home.
Anyone who has ever been in such a situation knows how far that (self) confidence can be found at times, so I am still very grateful that walking the Walk of Wisdom helped me so much. To never forget the experience, I got the angel tattooed on my ankle.
I wish everyone such a great experience and thank the people of the organization for developing the tour.
Marianne from Alphen aan den Rijn
