Mud and friendship! By pilgrim 549
Mirjam Mooijman walked the Walk of Wisdom together with Annemie Herinx in the winter and wrote the report below.
Winter is a special time to make a pilgrimage; The chilly wind, the unexpected rain, sometimes even snow, the high water and especially the thick muddy paths. The season stands for saying goodbye, dying to make way for the possibilities of the new.
Annemie and I, pastor and psychologist respectively in daily life, had decided to see this walk as a metaphor for our own lives.
An opportunity to say goodbye to who we were no longer was. An opportunity to get rid of excess ballast: dusty, useless emotions, shaky relationships with others around us, and meaningless, ingrained daily patterns. What can go away without shame, regret and painful surgery. But also: which parts of our lives do we want to take with us into the future?
It came as it came. The high water forced us to walk different paths than we had planned. We walked endlessly with our hiking boots up to our ankles in mud through the marshy meadows. Sometimes even over frozen and therefore slippery fields. Then again a pleasant winter sun as a surprise when we walked out of the woods. There was always a cup of good coffee to be found when the cold forced us and our courage almost sank.
We talked about our children, our relationships, our work and all the other things that can keep a person busy in their head. A lot of laughter, a lot of talking, occasional silence, daring to be honest, sometimes grumbling. Our conversations were not interrupted by telephones, clocks, daily rhythms. This allowed conversations to flutter, fly up, go down. There’s no such thing as whining when there’s a lot of time. You don’t have to analyze, you don’t have to make sense. And above all, don’t think too much, but enjoy the now.
As the route progressed we became more and more authentic. After all, what will be left of you if you keep peeling back layers of your ego. When you become more and more aware that your fears, your worries are your biggest enemy in life. To realize in all depth that it is about living without fear of tomorrow, yesterday and today. Unnoticed, we became quieter and quieter over the course of the days, not because we had to. Being good is not up our alley, but because it was good that way.
The last walking day on Tuesday 1 March was, as predicted by the KNMI, a terribly windy, cold day with snow and storms. Together we walked along the Waaldijk from Afferden to Nijmegen. Cold through and through, but we walked on, didn’t know how to give up. The joy of friendship, the power of words, the pleasure of taking the time to listen to each other, the beautiful peace and quiet of nature. It would have done us good!
Report Walk walk of wisdom
Nijmegen, 22 March 2016
Annemie Herinx is pastor in the Effata parish in Nijmegen-East. She is currently on retreat and has therefore hiked the WOW.
Mirjam Mooijman is an industrial psychologist and is looking for new ways to deepen her work.
