“There are places I can’t pass without a smile…” – report silence walk by Gert Bos
Gert Bos participates as a volunteer in our annual series of 10 silent walks ‘The Walk of Wisdom in a year around’. Report of the Malden-Nederasselt silent walk, 2 June 2024
There are fifteen of us when we leave at the bus stop at Malden in the direction of Nederasselt. Dry, pleasant temperature, good company, nothing stands in the way of a nice silent walk.
After half a kilometre we dive into the forest where we start the silent walk with a text for reflection and an emphatic request to walk in silence. You can say a lot of words about ‘silence’, but in the end it is ‘just’ silence, looking for the silence within and from there connecting with your surroundings, whether that is a beautiful Spotted Sand Eye or a series of motorcycles.
On the road now, quietly through the forest, along field and canal. Then an inevitable noisy kilometre along a busy road over canal and highway to walk back in silence to our first break at Ronald and Machteld’s B&B. “A place that is too beautiful not to share,” says Ronald. He is more than right, a paradisiacal place where we enjoy their hospitality, coffee, tea and delicious cake. Hospitable sharing, what about me?
After the break, we continue in silence. Through the Hatertse Vennen, a beautiful nature reserve with a beautiful view and a flooded path to the ruins of St. Walrick, now also a memorial site for corona victims and the Fever or Lapjesboom. We stop, dwell on it for a while in thought, share a text about ‘being in the now and letting go’ and then walk on in silence.
We are now about halfway through the entire Walk of Wisdom route and the landscape is changing. Through a dark forest path we suddenly end up in the full light of the open polder landscape. What a difference. In this vastness we take a break at the Boskant Maria Chapel. Light a candle to silently commemorate but also eat, chat, read or write in the Walk of Wisdom logbook that is here in the chapel.
The last part goes through the polder to Nederasselt. We meet quite a few caterpillars of the Peacock that are also walking, careful not to trample them. At Nederasselt we consult. Who wants to go further over the dike, through the floodplains along the Maas to the final bus stop, about 3, 4 km or who goes directly to the bus stop, about half a km? Three of us stop here, the rest go towards the Meuse and then to the final stop.
On the dike just before the final stop we hold a round where everyone can say what they thought of the walk, what was good and what could be improved. Hans reads another poem by Bart Moeyaert:
Eternity
There are places
Where I smiles
can’t go by anymore.
Once upon a time there’s a joke
told, stole a kiss,
something for the first time.
At the level of my ear,
for example
Did you get one night
promised that eternity
is a lie, but that it is
therefore not between us
may take less time.
There were more words
not needed – a mouth
speaks beautifully in itself
And skin has a memory.
You’ll always be my neck, my navel,
The hollow of my knee
forever with you.
Without a smile I can
no place is missing.
And then this silent walk is over. It was a beautiful day.
Gert Bos.
Would you like to join the next silent walk?
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