As I so often did after completing many of my life’s more recent Purpose-filled undertakings, my first task upon arriving in Chattanooga was to borrow some clippers and shave off all the hair that I had grown during The Walk. And as I did so I found myself thinking about the raw amazingness of the entire affair – and posing myself more than a few questions as well: Would The Walk ever bear the Good Fruit of societal peace & harmony that it was originally intended to bear? Would anyone be inspired by the same to Go Vegan or in any way adopt a more compassionate &/or ethically consistent lifestyle? Why did the relatively large group of personal friends and associates living in this region end up completely ignoring The Walk while I was underway, and would anyone in Chattanooga at all be interested in me sharing my experience with them & theirs? Would I ever engage such a super-challenging-yet-truly-Great Trek again? For the first three queries I had no concrete answer, and yet for the last, I most certainly did – Yes, for the rest of my life I will remain dedicated to serving any & all of my fellow sentient cousins wherever I currently find myself to be, AND – once those services have run their course and no additional requests for assistance are proffered – I do indeed intend to rise up and set forth and Walk for Peace again. I don’t know when that might happen, of course, and yet when the time is Right to Walk again for you & yours & ours as well, you can now that I will be walking …

“I am grateful for life – for my family and loved ones, yes, and yet also for all the rest: the strangers and the passersby, the animals with whom I share this planet, and even my enemies who have chosen to ridicule instead of support and hinder instead of encourage. I have become adept at being thankful for life’s more pleasant moments, no doubt, and yet I have also learned to appreciate the adversity that comes to my path as well. The lessons I’ve learned in my darkest hours not only empowered my Love when I chose to give it anyway, but also served as inspiration for me to aim higher and create greater things … In truth, everything changed in my life when I switched from saying ‘Look what’s happening to me’ to ‘Ah, here is another chance to Love’ – when I went from saying ‘I have to do this’ to “I GET to do this”. Indeed, when I started viewing my life as a way to serve instead of a means of building my own profit or reaping my own pleasures, the deeper essence of existence finally opened itself to me. I stopped trying to befriend others for what I could get from them, and instead simply chose to meet people with an open heart and a will to love them without condition … And was this choice a difficult one? No doubt! It was difficult and frustrating and even frightening at times. And often – at least whenever I was not fully divested from my selfish wants or longings – it felt like the path of losing; it felt like a constant series of defeats. And yet I kept on reminding myself that the only kinds of fights worth fighting are those we’re going to lose, because these are the long-odds battles that need to be fought – these are the struggles that must be engaged for our species (and indeed our planet) to move forward. And somebody has to fight them first – fight them when no one else is fighting them; fight them and lose them, again & again & again & again; until someday, somebody will come along after you – somebody who your bravery and self-sacrifice inspired to fight like you’ve fought – somebody who believes as you do fights the same fights for truth and justice and compassion and love – somebody who fights those fights as well – and wins.” ~ inspired by Tirzah Libert, Charlotte Eriksson & I. F. Stone

“Please know that if I have indeed seen farther than others [or loved more deeply], it is only because I have stood on the shoulders of giants … And so it is that when the Earth basks in the Sun’s brilliance, you’ll ever find me there with my arms spread wide and my face embraced by a smile … So here’s to those who will follow: all the freedom fighters and the social activists and the animal liberators; all the the bridge-builders and the hand-holders and the love-bringers; all you extraordinary Souls wrapped up in seemingly ordinary lives who will quietly keep on weaving threads of grace and decency and kindness and compassion into a still-inhumane world. You will be the unsung heroes in a world at war with itself. You will be the whisperers of hope that harmony and peace is truly possible on our planet. Be that beacon in your present darkness, and look for others who would light their candle with your flame. And then go – every day – and keep fighting and liberating and building. Keep holding and loving and weaving. Do whatever you can and whatever you have to do to keep bringing light to your dark and desperate world. Be the hero you are looking for – be the Hero we need. Peace is possible, my dear ones. It simply begins with us … The Divine in all its grace and wisdom has given you 86,400 seconds today. How many of them will you use to give and care and soothe and love?” ~ inspired by Isaac Newton, Saim Cheeda, L. R. Knost & William A. Ward

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt