How good is that name! You are marvelous. I had to go searching for a native speaker saying it aloud in Amharic. No luck yet. Never caught word of it before. Lucy, born at dawn, goes so well with it. You, born at dawn, are marvelous. So much wonder in the bones of our Before. I love how reading your post makes me wanna walk long. Thanks.
Loved, loved, loved the voice over on this. I found myself tearing up at your heart warming sign-off!
I spend a lot of time in a discord server with my friends over in the UK and we come back to the idea of right-to-wander often. As a Floridian, my brain can't comprehend feeling safe whilst potentially on another's property; yards are littered with the little yellow snake flag warning of 'treading'. Capitalism has privatized so much of something that isn't even ours, we are but a moment on our Mother Earth's timeline. We all belong, and I so wish our communities were built to emphasize that. Thank you for writing this, it was was wonderful-- what an adventure with friends!!!
Annabel Abbs gets into what it's like as a Brit trying to walk in the U.S. a bit in her lovely book "Windswept" (which I recommend to anyone who likes good writing, especially about walking, and also because it's about WOMEN who walked -- artists and writers like Gwen Johns, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O'Keefe, ...)
I wish our communities were built like that, too. It's something I still hope, someday, to be part of changing in some small way. And solidarity -- the part of Montana I live in is mostly pretty right-wing. I haven't seen the Gadsden flag yard signs, but it flies from many trucks and is on a LOT of license plates.
Such a lovely gift to myself to read (and listen) to your thoughtful and well-crafted words on this stormy day.
As to “connections and relationships,” the following excerpt from your composition caught my eye:
“The weight of scientific evidence points to the reality that we evolved to be interdependent, and to care for one another—a reality innate to our development, not an offshoot of it. The more recent proposition that humans evolved to be individualistic and competitive is contradicted by millions of years of hominin history.”
Because any value and/or presumption we clamp onto about ourselves and the world is metastatic by nature—such as humans are uniquely brought into being by the creator of the universe so as to be superior to, and masters of, all that we see; such that all that we see exists merely as commodity for our happiness, ambitions, and designs; such that to own and make profitable, by any means whatsoever, any portion of non-human nature, is self-evidently an entitlement bestowed upon us by the Lord and Creator of all—then perhaps that “No Trespassing” sign has migrated from the fence post to then hang around our own hearts and minds. Then, instead of “just walking each other home,” we are, each of us, spending our lives building fences, hanging signs, otherizing, and blazing our own lonely trails.
Thank you for sharing with us, Antonia. It sounds like you had a wonderful time connecting and experiencing.
Kenneth, you are one of my most treasured connections in this space, and only partly because we share geography. But still partly because of that -- it means something knowing the social conditions of the ground we live on, and it's hard to explain to others.
Your comment of, "perhaps that 'No Trespassing' sign has migrated from the fence post to then hang around our own hearts and mind" is possibly central to what I think about all the time these days, though inarticulately. The vast expanse of hominin history points to our capability to live -- to CHOOSE to live -- otherwise, but how we get there? How we get enough people to get there to make a difference? There is the vastness of the question. Thank you for always being here to explore it with me.
It is a fine day indeed when someone I admire and respect sends a kind word my way. Maybe kindness is part of how we get there. Kindness and gratitude. A challenge on some days.
I am so happy you were able to slow down and catch up with old and new friends Nia. Walking with friends is probably the fondest of times one can look back upon. I used to do a lot of walking with friends in cantonment areas of the hill city where I did my graduation, can’t remember I was ever happier than that in my life so far. True meaning and connection reveals the nature of human existence which is belonging and love. As spiritual guru Ram Dass said, ‘We are all just walking each other home’.
I always forget about that line from Ram Dass and am always happy to be reminded of it. Thank you, Swarna. 💖
There is something about walking with friends, isn't there? It's taken a long time, but I'm finding friends where I live reach out for a walk a lot more often than they used to. Slowly, slowly starting to remember that this is something we can all do together that's about the movement AND the connection and how we shape our lives together.
Beautiful insight Nia. I totally agree, to walk and connect and reflect with friends is something we can all do, it is such an accessible group activity. I love every bit of this walking life philosophy. 💜
Nia i love reading your writing, your thoughts, and the beauty you find around you so much. How wonderful to think of Lucy and deep time and walking, to delight in companionship even through pain on long walks, to believe and witness others who also love this world in a similar way. I always end up feeling so much lighter after reading your essays. 💜 🧚🏻
I love this piece for so many reasons, but one is that it helped me to recall and smile again over a recent walk my daughter (who is 16) and I took all over our current home of Omaha, NE. She wanted to visit a local cathedral because she likes the architecture and the quiet; so do I. We set off on a warm, sunny weekend day. We walked to the cathedral, then a coffee shop, then a grocery, then home. Once we got going, it seemed there wasn't a place we couldn't visit, and we saw the city in such an intimate way. Thank you Antonia!
My son is 16 -- I love that! "Once we got going, it seemed there wasn't a place we couldn't visit, and we saw the city in such an intimate way" -- yes! That is what I love about it all, and why I care so much that we have a world we can walk freely. I took my son to Portland, Oregon, with me last summer for a conference, and we had such a good time taking buses and walking all over the place. It's amazing how much a city opens up to you without a car, almost the opposite of how we're taught to think about getting around.
Maybe walking can be its own kind of thin space? 🧡
Yes, that is what happened. The city opened up to us, as you say. I think it also became new. We weren’t in a car. We saw it differently. And, absolutely, walking is a thin space! Thanks again.
Me again. And me too. I pretty much live for thin spaces (hence the name of my newsletter), and walking is such a wonderful one. I'm going to get a hold of your book Antonia. Also, I was born in Great Falls, my dad lives outside Missoula. I love MT.
Remarkably, you are not the only person here who was born in Great Falls! There's at least one other, and one who lives there. My grandmother lived in Great Falls for over 40 years, covering my entire childhood. We visited a lot, so I'm very fond of the place. I was over there just before the end of the year doing some archival research and trying to find ancestors' graves in the old cemetery! And my mom lives in Missoula. So, you know, the adage about Montana being a "small town with long streets" still holds. ;)
Reading this is so healing for me. In evangelical world Lucy was made fun of as a fraud and proof that we couldn’t trust science/media. I’m looking to reclaim some wonder and a sense of time by re-thinking about ancient ancestors!
Thank you so much for sharing that -- I didn't have any idea, but it makes sense. I'd never heard Lucy-specific criticism, but hear plenty of general evolution skepticism where I live, including geology research that seeks to prove Earth is only 6000 years old (I'm sure you've heard it all). "First Steps" is a really great book to read about it all. Jerry really knows his stuff and is a very accessible science writer and truly loves all of this work. He also edited an anthology of essays about Darwin that I have but haven't read yet.
Honestly, researching the paleoanthropology parts of my book gave me such an incredible sense of wonder. To think of that kind of time and the movement over it all of evolution itself and how many species have lived and died ... it takes my breath away every time. 🧡
Fantastic as always, and beautiful. Pretty amazing about Lucy, and how long ago she was walking. Yes, I do think we evolved to help and take care of others. I recently read something - wish I could remember where - about disasters and how people help each other vs trying to only protect themselves (maybe have been about terrible storms somewhere in South America and communities being devastated). Yes, time is short (for us) and we are marvelous, and I owe ya an email 😉😀. Take care, hope the knee has recovered!
Rebecca Solnit wrote a book about it not that long ago, but people have been talking about it for a long time! Dorothy Day noticed it, how people care for others during disaster, when she was a child during the San Francisco earthquake -- 1906? It helped define the course of her life because it convinced her that it's humans' natural tendency to do that.
I'm so glad! I like Philly a lot. I'd only been a couple times before, but mostly to the city center. It was so much better to get to know it, even just a little, a different way. 💖
It was lovely meeting you and walking with you, Nia! Even in pain. I broke my tibia when I was 7 years old, and it over grew, and despite corrective lifts, long walks often give me pain. The thoughts of Lucy make me feel less injured. I will read First Steps. Thank you for your kind words about my writing. I've picked up a copy of A Walking Life, and I look forward to reading it.
That is awful, I'm sorry. I mean, I know it's not the worst of the worst of pain, but having broken my lower back when I was around the same age, I am very much with you.
Jerry showed me another fossil, a toe bone with an osteosarcoma that was a couple million years old. I don't know why it makes me feel better knowing how many similar things humans have always dealt with, but it does. First Steps is a really good read, especially for anyone who's naturally into those subjects. But The Boy from County Hell is just a straight up good book!
I've managed with it for 45 years, no worries. In your photo of me, you can see my foot is at an angle from the break. There's a lump on the bone that I used to hit opponents with in kickboxing, so it wasn't all bad. 😎
Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it. It's an exorcism for revenge!
Our Wednesday men's hiking group, the Sons of the Beach, or SOBs for short, did our first off-island Cascade foothills hike of the year this past week, Wallace Falls in the Skykomish Valley. Of course the ferny ride, the car pool, and the apres-hike refreshments and conversation are as important as the exercise.
I'm sure you and I will have a walking conversation one day. Until then, if you need another beta reader for that water chapter, I might know someone.
Every hiking group should have a name that shortens to an equivalent of SOBs. 😂 That sounds like a great first off-course hike of the year, how beautiful.
And I am certain we will have a walking conversation! You're a lot closer than Philadelphia. ;) And thank you, absolutely, I think I'm going to need some expertise on that chapter (the main story is about the Fording and Elk Rivers and their selenium pollution from Teck Resources mining in British Columbia, depressing stuff, but water is miraculous no matter what we do to it).
Speaking of which, a friend in the UK just sent me information about the organization Drinkable Rivers, which a friend of hers runs. I think they're looking at screenings in the US for their film, possibly: https://drinkablerivers.org/film-drinkable-meuse/
The Fording and Elk ultimately feed the Columbia, so it's a Washington story too! Was Teck the company that wanted to mine in the upper Skagit? That chapter might require a site visit. There could be some walking involved.
I'll check out that film. I was just reading that no river in England or Wales is close to drinkable. Perhaps Scotland does better. That's where I plan to apply for political asylum if I get deported!
Yes it is! The pollution research I focus on is in Lake Koocanusa in Montana (this has to do with thinking about how pollution crosses borders, but also because the Flathead River's North Fork starts in about the same place that those two rivers do, but a political deal was cut to keep it from pollution, so the comparison is impressive).
I can't remember about the Skagit, but Teck is one of those enormous global mining companies. British Columbia's leeway with regards to its own environmental laws is pretty sad.
I looked it up. It was Imperial Metals, rather than Teck. There was a happy ending, and one of my local tribes, the Swinomish, had a lot to do with it.
It's always a good day for a walk, Antonia, and always a good day to read your reminders of that truth. Thanks for this. If you're ever in midcoast Maine, you've got an open invitation for a stroll. We were just out today walking the ice of a beaver pond/bog. So much life to see.
I would LOVE that. And how much fun would it be to walk that ice with you?! I was out yesterday on a wildlife tracking course, and it was too warm and there wasn't enough snow but we tracked wolves and mountain lions and minks and beavers nevertheless ... the more I do that kind of thing, the more I want to.
What snow we've had is disappearing, but Heather is big into tracking too. Around here, mostly coyotes, bobcats, fox, porcupines, and the littler ones. On the ice we saw some old crow track impressions. Everything was marvelous, though, as you know.
The sky is my favorite art show. Always new
YES. I am so glad to find others who feel similarly.
How good is that name! You are marvelous. I had to go searching for a native speaker saying it aloud in Amharic. No luck yet. Never caught word of it before. Lucy, born at dawn, goes so well with it. You, born at dawn, are marvelous. So much wonder in the bones of our Before. I love how reading your post makes me wanna walk long. Thanks.
Isn’t it beautiful? I love it. This is the video I used to try to catch the pronunciation before I did the audio: https://www.facebook.com/EthioTube/videos/ethiopia-የድንቅነሽ-3ኛ-ዓመታዊ-የሴቶች-የሽልማት-ፕሮግራም-dinknesh-3rd-annual-award-event-march-1/1585523161826539/
It might not be right, but I try to find what I can before doing audio of anything.
“So much wonder in the bones of our Before.” How wonderfully put!
Loved, loved, loved the voice over on this. I found myself tearing up at your heart warming sign-off!
I spend a lot of time in a discord server with my friends over in the UK and we come back to the idea of right-to-wander often. As a Floridian, my brain can't comprehend feeling safe whilst potentially on another's property; yards are littered with the little yellow snake flag warning of 'treading'. Capitalism has privatized so much of something that isn't even ours, we are but a moment on our Mother Earth's timeline. We all belong, and I so wish our communities were built to emphasize that. Thank you for writing this, it was was wonderful-- what an adventure with friends!!!
💖💖💖
Annabel Abbs gets into what it's like as a Brit trying to walk in the U.S. a bit in her lovely book "Windswept" (which I recommend to anyone who likes good writing, especially about walking, and also because it's about WOMEN who walked -- artists and writers like Gwen Johns, Nan Shepherd, Georgia O'Keefe, ...)
I wish our communities were built like that, too. It's something I still hope, someday, to be part of changing in some small way. And solidarity -- the part of Montana I live in is mostly pretty right-wing. I haven't seen the Gadsden flag yard signs, but it flies from many trucks and is on a LOT of license plates.
Such a lovely gift to myself to read (and listen) to your thoughtful and well-crafted words on this stormy day.
As to “connections and relationships,” the following excerpt from your composition caught my eye:
“The weight of scientific evidence points to the reality that we evolved to be interdependent, and to care for one another—a reality innate to our development, not an offshoot of it. The more recent proposition that humans evolved to be individualistic and competitive is contradicted by millions of years of hominin history.”
Because any value and/or presumption we clamp onto about ourselves and the world is metastatic by nature—such as humans are uniquely brought into being by the creator of the universe so as to be superior to, and masters of, all that we see; such that all that we see exists merely as commodity for our happiness, ambitions, and designs; such that to own and make profitable, by any means whatsoever, any portion of non-human nature, is self-evidently an entitlement bestowed upon us by the Lord and Creator of all—then perhaps that “No Trespassing” sign has migrated from the fence post to then hang around our own hearts and minds. Then, instead of “just walking each other home,” we are, each of us, spending our lives building fences, hanging signs, otherizing, and blazing our own lonely trails.
Thank you for sharing with us, Antonia. It sounds like you had a wonderful time connecting and experiencing.
Kenneth, you are one of my most treasured connections in this space, and only partly because we share geography. But still partly because of that -- it means something knowing the social conditions of the ground we live on, and it's hard to explain to others.
Your comment of, "perhaps that 'No Trespassing' sign has migrated from the fence post to then hang around our own hearts and mind" is possibly central to what I think about all the time these days, though inarticulately. The vast expanse of hominin history points to our capability to live -- to CHOOSE to live -- otherwise, but how we get there? How we get enough people to get there to make a difference? There is the vastness of the question. Thank you for always being here to explore it with me.
It is a fine day indeed when someone I admire and respect sends a kind word my way. Maybe kindness is part of how we get there. Kindness and gratitude. A challenge on some days.
It is indeed. Sometimes we really need one another, and sometimes we really need the this-world that is not-human to keep us aligned to that truth. 🧡
I am so happy you were able to slow down and catch up with old and new friends Nia. Walking with friends is probably the fondest of times one can look back upon. I used to do a lot of walking with friends in cantonment areas of the hill city where I did my graduation, can’t remember I was ever happier than that in my life so far. True meaning and connection reveals the nature of human existence which is belonging and love. As spiritual guru Ram Dass said, ‘We are all just walking each other home’.
I always forget about that line from Ram Dass and am always happy to be reminded of it. Thank you, Swarna. 💖
There is something about walking with friends, isn't there? It's taken a long time, but I'm finding friends where I live reach out for a walk a lot more often than they used to. Slowly, slowly starting to remember that this is something we can all do together that's about the movement AND the connection and how we shape our lives together.
Beautiful insight Nia. I totally agree, to walk and connect and reflect with friends is something we can all do, it is such an accessible group activity. I love every bit of this walking life philosophy. 💜
Me too! Now only to live it a little more …
I am trying to imbibe it too even if space is limited in Indian cities 💜
I miss walking and hope to get back to it after my partial knee replacement surgery in July. I’ve been craving woods in particular.
I'm thinking of a walk among some early green of spring for your hopefully happy new part-knee ... 💖
HEY YO!!!
GEET a HOAGIE?
Hope YUZ guys drank lots of WOODER?
😂
Nia i love reading your writing, your thoughts, and the beauty you find around you so much. How wonderful to think of Lucy and deep time and walking, to delight in companionship even through pain on long walks, to believe and witness others who also love this world in a similar way. I always end up feeling so much lighter after reading your essays. 💜 🧚🏻
I always end up feeling more multi-dimensional after reading yours! You remind me where we come from, and who we have to look up to ...
There is something so inspiring about Lucy, every time I read or think about her -- or meet her bones. I really love her. ☺️
I love this piece for so many reasons, but one is that it helped me to recall and smile again over a recent walk my daughter (who is 16) and I took all over our current home of Omaha, NE. She wanted to visit a local cathedral because she likes the architecture and the quiet; so do I. We set off on a warm, sunny weekend day. We walked to the cathedral, then a coffee shop, then a grocery, then home. Once we got going, it seemed there wasn't a place we couldn't visit, and we saw the city in such an intimate way. Thank you Antonia!
My son is 16 -- I love that! "Once we got going, it seemed there wasn't a place we couldn't visit, and we saw the city in such an intimate way" -- yes! That is what I love about it all, and why I care so much that we have a world we can walk freely. I took my son to Portland, Oregon, with me last summer for a conference, and we had such a good time taking buses and walking all over the place. It's amazing how much a city opens up to you without a car, almost the opposite of how we're taught to think about getting around.
Maybe walking can be its own kind of thin space? 🧡
Yes, that is what happened. The city opened up to us, as you say. I think it also became new. We weren’t in a car. We saw it differently. And, absolutely, walking is a thin space! Thanks again.
Walking as thin space. Oh the bliss of that. Thank you both.
I've been thinking about it a lot since this exchange. There's so much there ...
Me again. And me too. I pretty much live for thin spaces (hence the name of my newsletter), and walking is such a wonderful one. I'm going to get a hold of your book Antonia. Also, I was born in Great Falls, my dad lives outside Missoula. I love MT.
Remarkably, you are not the only person here who was born in Great Falls! There's at least one other, and one who lives there. My grandmother lived in Great Falls for over 40 years, covering my entire childhood. We visited a lot, so I'm very fond of the place. I was over there just before the end of the year doing some archival research and trying to find ancestors' graves in the old cemetery! And my mom lives in Missoula. So, you know, the adage about Montana being a "small town with long streets" still holds. ;)
Reading this is so healing for me. In evangelical world Lucy was made fun of as a fraud and proof that we couldn’t trust science/media. I’m looking to reclaim some wonder and a sense of time by re-thinking about ancient ancestors!
Thank you so much for sharing that -- I didn't have any idea, but it makes sense. I'd never heard Lucy-specific criticism, but hear plenty of general evolution skepticism where I live, including geology research that seeks to prove Earth is only 6000 years old (I'm sure you've heard it all). "First Steps" is a really great book to read about it all. Jerry really knows his stuff and is a very accessible science writer and truly loves all of this work. He also edited an anthology of essays about Darwin that I have but haven't read yet.
Honestly, researching the paleoanthropology parts of my book gave me such an incredible sense of wonder. To think of that kind of time and the movement over it all of evolution itself and how many species have lived and died ... it takes my breath away every time. 🧡
Fantastic as always, and beautiful. Pretty amazing about Lucy, and how long ago she was walking. Yes, I do think we evolved to help and take care of others. I recently read something - wish I could remember where - about disasters and how people help each other vs trying to only protect themselves (maybe have been about terrible storms somewhere in South America and communities being devastated). Yes, time is short (for us) and we are marvelous, and I owe ya an email 😉😀. Take care, hope the knee has recovered!
Rebecca Solnit wrote a book about it not that long ago, but people have been talking about it for a long time! Dorothy Day noticed it, how people care for others during disaster, when she was a child during the San Francisco earthquake -- 1906? It helped define the course of her life because it convinced her that it's humans' natural tendency to do that.
My knee always has something to complain about. 😂
I understand your knee.. sometimes my whole body feels like that! 🤣. Thanks for the info/reference, deeply appreciated.
The rest of my body is trying to catch up! I'm trying to persuade it to wait a while. 😣
Beautiful! Really enjoyed the Philly shout-outs. Love, a Philadelphian
I'm so glad! I like Philly a lot. I'd only been a couple times before, but mostly to the city center. It was so much better to get to know it, even just a little, a different way. 💖
It was lovely meeting you and walking with you, Nia! Even in pain. I broke my tibia when I was 7 years old, and it over grew, and despite corrective lifts, long walks often give me pain. The thoughts of Lucy make me feel less injured. I will read First Steps. Thank you for your kind words about my writing. I've picked up a copy of A Walking Life, and I look forward to reading it.
That is awful, I'm sorry. I mean, I know it's not the worst of the worst of pain, but having broken my lower back when I was around the same age, I am very much with you.
Jerry showed me another fossil, a toe bone with an osteosarcoma that was a couple million years old. I don't know why it makes me feel better knowing how many similar things humans have always dealt with, but it does. First Steps is a really good read, especially for anyone who's naturally into those subjects. But The Boy from County Hell is just a straight up good book!
I've managed with it for 45 years, no worries. In your photo of me, you can see my foot is at an angle from the break. There's a lump on the bone that I used to hit opponents with in kickboxing, so it wasn't all bad. 😎
Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it. It's an exorcism for revenge!
We could all use a good exorcism. 😈
Our Wednesday men's hiking group, the Sons of the Beach, or SOBs for short, did our first off-island Cascade foothills hike of the year this past week, Wallace Falls in the Skykomish Valley. Of course the ferny ride, the car pool, and the apres-hike refreshments and conversation are as important as the exercise.
I'm sure you and I will have a walking conversation one day. Until then, if you need another beta reader for that water chapter, I might know someone.
Every hiking group should have a name that shortens to an equivalent of SOBs. 😂 That sounds like a great first off-course hike of the year, how beautiful.
And I am certain we will have a walking conversation! You're a lot closer than Philadelphia. ;) And thank you, absolutely, I think I'm going to need some expertise on that chapter (the main story is about the Fording and Elk Rivers and their selenium pollution from Teck Resources mining in British Columbia, depressing stuff, but water is miraculous no matter what we do to it).
Speaking of which, a friend in the UK just sent me information about the organization Drinkable Rivers, which a friend of hers runs. I think they're looking at screenings in the US for their film, possibly: https://drinkablerivers.org/film-drinkable-meuse/
It's a great name!
The Fording and Elk ultimately feed the Columbia, so it's a Washington story too! Was Teck the company that wanted to mine in the upper Skagit? That chapter might require a site visit. There could be some walking involved.
I'll check out that film. I was just reading that no river in England or Wales is close to drinkable. Perhaps Scotland does better. That's where I plan to apply for political asylum if I get deported!
Yes it is! The pollution research I focus on is in Lake Koocanusa in Montana (this has to do with thinking about how pollution crosses borders, but also because the Flathead River's North Fork starts in about the same place that those two rivers do, but a political deal was cut to keep it from pollution, so the comparison is impressive).
I can't remember about the Skagit, but Teck is one of those enormous global mining companies. British Columbia's leeway with regards to its own environmental laws is pretty sad.
I looked it up. It was Imperial Metals, rather than Teck. There was a happy ending, and one of my local tribes, the Swinomish, had a lot to do with it.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/upper-skagit-river-watershed-mining-rights-returned-to-b-c-government/
That is good to read! And a win with a provincial government that hasn't had a great track record, so it's encouraging.
It's always a good day for a walk, Antonia, and always a good day to read your reminders of that truth. Thanks for this. If you're ever in midcoast Maine, you've got an open invitation for a stroll. We were just out today walking the ice of a beaver pond/bog. So much life to see.
I would LOVE that. And how much fun would it be to walk that ice with you?! I was out yesterday on a wildlife tracking course, and it was too warm and there wasn't enough snow but we tracked wolves and mountain lions and minks and beavers nevertheless ... the more I do that kind of thing, the more I want to.
What snow we've had is disappearing, but Heather is big into tracking too. Around here, mostly coyotes, bobcats, fox, porcupines, and the littler ones. On the ice we saw some old crow track impressions. Everything was marvelous, though, as you know.
Crying crying crying
Can't stop thinking about it, Karen!
Still riding the high!