LESSONS FROM WALKING FROM THE DESK OF RAMA ZIEGENHALS

While on these walks, the trail takes you through many pastures alongside grazing animals…& while that may sound idyllic, cows & horses can be intimidating. Now, I grew up on a farm in Maryland & so my husband likes to tease me saying, “I thought you were a farm girl!?” And I reply, “yes, & the animals were big & intimidating then too!” I have a healthy sense of fear & respect for farm animals. 

The path for the Cotswold Way is marked out for you like a hiking trail, & so we are careful to pay attention & not miss the markers. When you come to a marker that points to the path in the next field & it just so happens that a herd of cows are grazing in the middle of the path, it is a moment of pausing & searching for a different way!

The morning of our fourth day, I injured my hip. The rest of the day I limped along wondering if I would be able to continue. Long into the night I prayed that I would be able to finish the walk. It appeared that I had what is called a hip flexor strain & I could walk, but I could not flex meaning I simply pulled my leg forward on each step. I walked a day at a time not knowing if it would get worse or better, & I experienced mixed emotions. My first & overwhelming emotion was one of gratitude that I could keep walking! Secondly, a bit of sadness as I missed being able to feel the freedom & stride that came with my love for walking.

Somewhere in there, I realized that I had probably been walking with a “limp” this whole past year. It was a long year of transitioning my Mother from independent living into a retirement community. It was a year of hospital stays & surgeries, selling her home of over 40 years, & seeking an affordable retirement community that ticked all of the boxes. Plans were made & remade as clarity came through waiting. I truly learned to go a day at a time not knowing if the situation would get better or worse with my Mother. But I could walk even though it was with a heavy limp of exhaustion & times of feeling overwhelmed. I am so grateful to have been able to finish that walk with her to see her happily at home in a new community. And, although not ideal, it is ok to walk with a limp; God is good & His grace is sufficient. But here is the bigger surprise/lesson. After my injury, we met some doctors & began walking with them. As I described my symptoms, one said that walking would actually help it to heal! There is healing in the walking…a day at a time.

The last lesson I will share with you is around the people we meet on these walks. As I mentioned above, we met two couples & of the four, three of them knew each other from medical school & were English, the fourth was Belgian. They were delightful. Each day we were excited when we found each other on the trail &/or shared a meal together. And this is how it goes i.e. some of us walk faster or slower & at times we will walk at our own pace, while at other times we try to stay together & find a mutually comfortable pace. What was reinforced for me is that it is good to respect our unique ways of walking & pace on the path. But it is also good to adjust our pace & learn to walk together.

This coming year I want to pay attention to adjusting my pace. I don’t want to miss out on the grace of the companionship I need as I walk with a limp, & the obstacles that confront me on the way marked for me. The years are short & the gift of life is found in our love for one another. My husband had a liturgy that he would recite for us at the beginning of each day of walking. It ended with, “…in the midst of the cares & occupation of this world, may we not forget you [God], but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight.” God sees you, loves you, & walks with you in this life as we make our way on the path God has set out for us.