The writer Pico Iyer observed:

“A person susceptible to wanderlust is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.”

It seems an appropriate thought to share as I head out on another voyage of discovery and, perhaps, transformation.

Iyer also wrote that we don’t travel “in order to move around—you’re traveling in order to be moved.  And really what you’re seeing is not just the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall but some moods or intimations or places inside yourself that you never ordinarily see . . .”

I like to observe the world at the speed of walking. Candice knows this, which is why she recently shared this quote from the Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author Søren Kierkegaard.

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”

Before heading out for distant explorations, I decided to follow the example of my friend Chuck Wolfe whose Resurgence: A Journey Substack newsletter illustrates “the transformation of spaces influenced by nature, culture, technology, and the beauty in decay, survival, and rebirth.” Chuck takes his camera and journal around his hometown and across the world to “explore natural resilience, historical heritage, and human adaptability across cycles of change and growth that shape our shared environments.” Chuck looks at the monumental and mundane and is astonished at both.

In yesterday’s walks in downtown Silver Spring, I pulled out my camera to capture the world in my hometown at this moment in time.

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Artwork and architecture.

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Remembering Rachel Carson

In the midst of our never-ending Purple Line construction project, I spent time in a quiet downtown oasis to remember the words of Silver Spring’s own Rachel Carson.

As the Historical Marker Data Base notes,

“This sculpture, titled Two Roads, is a kind of open book that stands where two paths diverge, reflecting visitors and their world. The pages, with passages of caution, insight, beauty and hope, are quietly disintegrating dissolving into the air. Entire pages are missing, yet fragments of shining text are still legible.“

The quote from Carson’s The Sense of Wonder, shown above, captures so much of her spirit.

“It was a clear night without a moon. With a friend, I went out on a flat headland that is almost a tiny island, being all but surrounded by the waters of the bay. There the horizons are remote and distant rims on the edge of space. We lay and looked up at the sky and the millions of stars that blazed in darkness . . . I have never seen them more beautiful: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. Once or twice a meteor burned its way into the earth’s atmosphere . . . It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century or even once in a human generation, this little headland would be thronged with spectators.” 

There is nature in the urban world

Flowers, along with celebrations of both nature and the world around us, were everywhere.

The spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer

Signs of gratitude and reminders to laugh are plentiful amidst our amazingly diverse downtown.

Summer is bursting out all over at the market

The bounty of the earth was on full display as our area farmers prepared for the Saturday Silver Springs Farmers Market.

With this special Sunday edition of Monday Musings in mind, follow the advice of Iyer and Kierkegaard and walk yourself into a state of well-being. Walk away from every illness. Walk into your best thoughts.

Walk to be transformed.

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo of walker by Lacey Raper on Unsplash. All other photos by DJB: Mushrooms from Cory at Madison Mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers from George and Elda at Barajas Produce, and peaches from Winn at Quaker Valley Orchards.