This month of travel has been all about wandering. We have crossed many borders, meandered down side streets, walked garden pathways, down the halls of cathedrals and castles. There is such delight in just wandering. Wandering leads to surprise encounters with people, momentary discoveries and unexpected finds. In Wandering on the Way, the Taoist master Chuang Tzu wrote, “Great understanding is broad and unhurried while little understanding is cramped and busy. The Way has never known boundaries.” To wander is to move into territory outside the familiar and to be on the cusp of continuous change.
Wandering goes hand in hand with wondering. Wondering allows time to muse on the fantastical and the strange and leads to direct apprehension of the unknown. The wonder in wandering opens up to a joy in small things—the adorable boy in the hand knitted sweater, the beautiful man from Grenada and the vista from the lighthouse over the sea.
Make wandering part of your daily practice. Take one to two hours each day to wander unhurried. Step outside the routine you always follow and move into the wide open air. Move without schedule, aim or intention. Let things unfold before your eyes, one by one. Learn to attend to things and move on. Let each thing arise in its own unique way and cling to nothing. By this, we each take part in the Way of the world.
