As a child, I learned a wonderful word: meandering. The stream where we played a boat race with leaves meandered through the forest with sharp turns. To win, your leaf had to get caught in the fast flow of the outside corners. If you were unlucky, it ended up in the almost stagnant water in the inside bend or even worse it floated on the bank. “They call those curves meandering,” my mother told me. “In many large rivers, they remove those bends, so that the ships can sail faster.”

One Stream

During the Walk of wisdom I often thought of this beautiful musing word meandering. At streams, on the meandering dikes with that straightened river or the new dead straight dike in the distance.

And even if there was no water in sight. Gradually, the route became one big meandering stream for me. I liked to let myself be carried away and practiced to live a meandering life.

Those who live in Nijmegen, like me, are pilgrims on familiar territory and must therefore resist the temptation to take a shortcut every now and then. Even without a map, I knew when the route took me closer or farther from home, landmarks sometimes even popped up in the distance. You walk away from Nijmegen into the wide world….. Then the path makes a sharp turn and it seems as if you are walking back to the city. Until the path made another bend….

Determined to be guided by the seedling, I walked the winding road on which others preceded me. At first it felt like walking a labyrinth. Gradually, however, it became meandering around Nijmegen. No longer purposefully on the way to a center like in a labyrinth, but only on the way, like a leaf that lets itself be carried along with the current.

Quiet enjoyment

A meandering stream has a natural winding course, causing accretion in the inside bend and exit in the outside bend. In the acceleration of an outside bend, my head was full of new thoughts and plans. Only to come to a standstill a little later, like the water in an inside bend: quietly waiting for the bus to come, quietly enjoying so much beauty along the way. Following the meandering route was also an exercise in letting go of self-direction and discovering that you don’t have to walk purposefully to reach the end goal… Especially with the sun and beautiful autumn colors, this could go on endlessly as far as I’m concerned.

But the current deflected with a final turn. Almost back to where I had started, with the tight Waalkade, the many ships and the bridges full of traffic in sight, I doubted whether it would be possible to live a meandering life at home. I deliberately let myself go down to the banks of the Waal. And discovered that in the middle of the city, the waterfront allows the water to make a winding pattern in peace and quiet. Along that beautiful pattern, I let myself be guided back home.

Entrainment

At home, I was immediately thrown full into the outside corner. The danger of draining the energy gained was immediate. But the experience gained to meander creates something else. It’s easier for me to let myself be carried away, in the speed of the rapids or in the calm waters. On my way to work or home, I don’t take the shortest or the fastest route, but consciously make a detour. Knowing how very unexpected encounters can be, I often just have a chat or let someone mess up my schedule. And if all in all it is still (too) much, I know that there is a shore, where I only have to take myself to catch my breath. I hope to keep meandering. After all, the path of the soul seldom follows straight paths…

Joska van der Meer (pilgrim 786)

The photo collage was made by Jelle Veldhorst, Joska’s son (the gutter is from the graceful bridge De Oversteek at the end of the route)