0
Share on bsky
View this post on Instagram
I was made aware of the Walk for Peace later than most, early January.
Watching the videos, I wept with gratitude for a much-needed sense of hopeFULLness that I have not experienced in at least five years.
I told my therapist that even though I was feeling more hopeful, I still felt impotent to make a greater difference in these times of so much heaviness.
Helpless, even though:
>> I practice mindfulness every moment I can remember to.
>> I continue to meditate daily as I have done for many years.
>> I continue to study teachers of all traditions—mostly Buddhist—about how I can learn from my inner landscape in an effort to reduce suffering and bring compassion to myself and others.
>> I follow and listen to every Walk for Peace talk/video (I live further away and am walking in spirit).
>> I am committed to my daytime work as a hospice chaplain and mental health therapist.
>> I recognize my privilege and help those who struggle more than I do.
>> I work on honoring my fears (which are more intense some days than others) endeavoring to continue to be present, and move through my life anyway.
When I showed my therapist pictures from the Walk for Peace, specifically the one of the Venerable monks walking in the snow and ice she said, “They don’t look like they believe they are impotent.” This stopped me in my tracks (pun intended).
The Venerable monks are offering us not just the opportunity to experience and re-commit to peace, compassion, loving kindness, mindfulness, and supporting each other.
They are providing us an example of how to do it.
A clear commitment to mindfulness of self first, then it will ripple out.
In my life I can sometimes feel like I am walking through scorching hot days of anger and frustration; cold days of shutting down; rainy days when I feel drenched with sorrow; days when the sleet of biting resentment makes me shiver.
I walk through freezing conditions of my own suffering caused by grasping, wanting, and desire even though I know they are causing me suffering.
I walk through days when the heavy snow of darker times slows me down or creates dangerous conditions that I must pay attention to.
I walk on the hard ground of things I can’t change or control; the sharp pavement of activated trauma that leaves me feeling I must walk gingerly through life. I walk with people on all sides—some trying to “get” something from me, and some just trying to express gratitude, or love, or kindness, and sometimes in my own self-centered goals I can’t distinguish between them.
Sometimes I am walking through the sickness of depression, grief, and despair that seem to leave me not wanting to move forward.
I also walk in days of the gentle warming sun of beauty, nature, smiles, love, and hugs. The refreshing breezes of hope, compassion, and kindness seem to help me breathe easier and deeper as I walk through life. And sometimes I feel the deep nourishment and liberation of friendship and being able to walk each step with gratitude for my life and for recognizing the present moments in this journey.
The lesson I am learning from the Walk for Peace is the commitment to continue my walk and my practices, not for a specific goal or end, but for the purpose of walking with all of moments and experiences—regardless of the outer or inner weather.
Regardless of the outer or inner confusions.
Regardless of the imperfectness of the inner and outer road.
Regardless of how I may walk each step.
My commitment to walking also must include a non-judgmental, radical acceptance of what is (or at least as best as I can in the moment)—extending forgiveness to myself and to others, and asking for forgiveness from others.
For me, the reminders offered by the Walk for Peace are about mindfulness that starts with my own breathing to clear my mind. In that clarity I can see more clearly:
>> My habitual tendencies of letting my thoughts become the leader of my walk.
>> My belief that getting being more and more productive will bring more peace.
>> My delusional beliefs that distraction is a helpful practice for inner and outer exhaustion on my life’s walk.
The final reminder from the Venerable monks is that we can’t walk alone—not figuratively—literally we can not walk in our lives alone.
We need to support each other’s walk. What that looks like depends on so many things. The important thing is to be open to giving what we can, and asking for and receiving help from others by extending grace, kindness, and love to all beings.
~
“When the road feels long and hard,
And the world feels heavy still.
Just breathe….
Be kind….
Take one more step….
This is how we walk for peace.”
~ Venerable monk SyLong, a Walk for Peace monk (January 6, 2026)
author: Karuna Duval, LICSW, APBCC
Image: Anthony O. Gomes via @walkforpeace.usa/Instagram
Editor: Molly Murphy
Read 0 comments and reply