{You & Me} Side by Side
“Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.”
— Rev Dr Howard Thurman, Excerpt from Commencement Speech and Spelman College, 1980
Main Movement Meditation
- Consider pre-planning at least one or two chunks of time to specifically move with the guided meditation alongside a loved one, partner, friend, neighbor, or family member. I have had several people in my life benefit from planning to walk with someone every day of a certain week. You might also stage various walks with different people in one day with healthy breaks.
- Try it with the same person twice in two different times/areas.
- Try it once while energetically visualizing someone you love in your life moving with you and the
- guided meditation. Consider it a unique, flowing, and moving opportunity to lift them, honor them, and pray for them.
Additional Practices & Meditations
- Movement Forward Walking Meditation on Insight Timer. For this meditation, you might listen to the main meditation together with your partner, then spend a few minutes connecting and sharing any reflections, and then you could split up and each individually listen to this meditation with further reflection and sharing together afterwards.
- Three Practices from “Walking as Relationship” in the Ways of Walking Workshop: (A) Somatic Listening, (B) Non-Verbal Wisdom, and (C) Inviting Radical Relationship. Each of these practices could be great gateways to inspire more connection and bring more intention into your shared steps/movement.
- Walking as Vulnerability Practice: How Are We Really Doing. We each carry a world of complexity and unfortunately in our time, we don’t have enough spaces that feel safe, brave, and nurturing to allow some or all of the trembling, aches, or truths to come to the surface. I highly encourage this specific practice alongside this week’s invitation with a loved one.
Additional Resources:
Prompts:
Consider writing one or a few of these down on a piece of paper. Take them with you both and if you are curious and interested, pull one out and read it first silently to yourself and then again out loud to your walking partner. You might cut them into pieces and randomly draw/split the prompts to read and guide some of your movement. Be open and attentive to what arises. Release the need to solve anything or arrive somewhere.
- Look up at the sky, notice the trees, and feel the air. What words, emotions, or thoughts come to you as you bring more intention to these elements? What is it like to *share* in the experience of seeing the same sky, trees, and brush of a fresh breeze?
- Be extra attentive to the movement of your body and the movement of your partner, friend, or peer. Be with this noticing for a minute. Share or reflect on what might be possible if we spent more time processing, sharing, listening, and creating from this embodiment/vantage point?
- As you move, consider asking one another the following question: “Does it feel easier to share and listen to heavy or complex things/experiences/feelings/stories while moving? Why or why not? Is there anything heavy, inspiring, or complex that you want to share?” Lean into spacious, patient, and undefended listening if able. After one shares, invite two deep breaths amongst the two of you to stretch it out. After a time of processing, further listening, and reflecting, consider switching to have the other person share.
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San Francisco and Bay Area Resources
- The Great Highway from Lincoln Ave to Sloat Ave. - 4 miles round trip
- Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park - 1 mile loop
- Philosopher’s Way in McLaren Park - 2.7 mile loop
- McLaren Park - 313 acres of trails, paths, playgrounds, etc
- SF Crosstown Trail - around 17 miles but can be walked in sections
- AllTrails - database of trails
- Mount Davidson - start at Juanita staircase, up to the cross and around the mountain
- Glen Canyon Park