In learning about The Five-Mile Challenge on Open Air, I was reminded of the Bridge Walk theme of 2014, “Why We Walk Together.” As a Sangha, we worked toward walking 52,000,000 steps (how many it would take to get from San Francisco to Kantolomba), and we did it!
I remember that commitment clearly. I had just moved to a new city, and it was a wonderful opportunity to explore the city while contributing to our overall group goal. Each day, no matter how “I” felt, I would leave the house, breathe in the air, and begin walking. At first, I watched how someone didn’t “enjoy” walking – it wasn’t fun, I could never walk enough to meet my goal, and so on. But more and more I focused on being present to the experience of walking. The way my feet would sound on the pavement, how the sounds of neighborhoods changed, the beauty of the trees around me.
I would reflect on how many steps the team in Kantolomba walked each day -- from their homes to the property, the kitchen to the dining hall. And I would think of what they carried: the huge pots of nshima or beans, trays of eggs, towers of plates. I experienced the oneness of it all -- walking with them, for them, and in honor of them. Reflecting on it today, I think of the many miles our girls walk to school every day, working towards an education and a brighter future.
It was a wonderful moment of finding love in doing something new and finding joy in being in solidarity with our community in support of the Africa Vulnerable Children Project.
I look forward to exploring a new love with The Five-Mile Challenge group coaching class this year. (Registration fees for the class support the Africa Project.) To choose something we want to do for a community we want to support, together, well - it doesn’t get better than that! I hope you will join me.
In Gassho,
Sreedevi