We now Have a Free downloadable PDF of our Card Decks (English and Spanish) of Contemplative Walking Practices and Walking Quotes and Prompts. Scroll down to find them.

Retreat on 2 Feet is a new contemplative walking and well-being initiative from Living Compass. This experience was created to introduce the spiritual practice of contemplative walking, also known as walking meditation, as a way to enhance our spiritual, physical, and emotional well-being. While many of our offerings focus on walking, those with mobility challenges can also participate because the primary movement we focus on is the inner, contemplative path. 

Ro2F (our abbreviation for Retreat on 2 Feet) is an invitation to slow down and pay attention, put aside distractions, and notice the presence of the Sacred that surrounds us at every moment. We slow down to not just look at, but to truly notice the trees, the sound of the wind, the shrieks of delight from children playing in the park, our neighbor who is also out for a walk with her dog, the dappling of sunlight through a bush, the feeling of our feet in contact with the ground, the feeling of our heartbeat, and the slowing down of our breath that matches the slowing of our steps.

Gary Manning, a co-creator of Retreat on 2 Feet (along with Scott Stoner) writes a we weekly column called “Ponderings from the Path.” You can read it each Friday in our Retreat on 2 Feet Facebook group. Here is a recent column that captures the essence of what we are co-creating. Or we could really say, that all of us are co-creating, because we need a village to support us on the path.

Ponderings from the Path, by Gary Manning:

"Let me keep company always with those who say

'Look!' and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads."

-- Mary Oliver

A number of years ago, I spent about two weeks in a small, Irish village in County Wexford. One of the phrases I heard repeatedly while I was there was, "How're ya' keepin'?" which is almost an analogue of the American, "How ya' doin'?" -- except the responses the former question elicited were much more detailed than those I usually hear (or give) to the latter.

I heard that question -- "How're ya' keepin'?" -- asked repeatedly, and what always followed was a description of what was ACTUALLY going on in the respondent's life. They shared their health challenges, family dramas, and economic worries. They also shared about their kids' progress in school, the arrival of the newest baby, and their latest holiday (aka: vacation) travels, or the most recent fishing trip.

But there was also a second part to this exchange: almost every person responding to the initial question, would end their answer with another question -- something along the lines of, "Have you seen...?" What would then follow was the person sharing something that had caught their eye -- a sighting of a particular bird, the way the tides seemed to be rising higher or falling lower, that one sheep that was always escaping its field, or how the barley was growing/not growing according to schedule. The original questioner would then share their own observations of seemingly innocuous sightings that had occurred since the last conversation with this particular neighbor.

After a few days, I asked one of my new friends about this spacious way in which his fellow community members asked and answered these questions. He replied, "There are just a few hundred of us in these parts, so we all pretty much know everything about each other already, but that last bit, where we share what we're noticing helps us remember to pay attention to the little joys and wonders that happen all the time, and which can easily get overlooked in the day to day. It takes a village to see everything there is to see."

I know it's tempting to think that our particular spiritual journey is a solo operation. If we're not careful, we can get caught up in our own successes and failures, as if we are independent of everyone and everything around us. Of course, we all "know" better, but sometimes we forget.

One of the big dreams Scott and I have for Retreat on 2 Feet (and for this Facebook page) is to facilitate a community of like-minded folks who are on the lookout for the mystery and the marvels to be discovered in plain, old everyday moments. Since we began this work a couple of years ago, our own lives have been enriched as we've learned from each other and from many of you. And even though we say it all the time, in a world of distraction and anxieties of all sorts it can be easy to overlook the wonders all around us.

It DOES take a village to see everything there is to see!

How're ya' keepin'? What are you seeing?

Stay on the path, my friends.