Contemplative Pilgrimage Through Walking Water

Marks of the drought on the route of Phase II.

It started because of the years long drought in California, this walk, this invitation to activism, this uniting of voices, this education about the importance of water, while actually experiencing the waterways. Indeed, WALKING WATER has become a pilgrimage of sorts, meant to heal these waterways that have been fading as years of dryness accumulate.

Walking Water has been in existence and actively engaged in local water pilgrimage activities since 2015. But this group has also been aware and active in addressing global water issues as well, including following the treatment of the protesters and the defiant oil company, which insisted on tunneling under the Missouri River, despite the federal government withdrawal of permits, to complete the DAPL.



This year, Phase 2 of the walk took walkers from Owens Lake to the Cascades, from Sept. 23 to Oct. 14. This walk has never been a protest, but more of an exploration, being with the water, the lands around it, and the people who live there. First stop was Owens Lake, which has been dry since the 1920s, when the water was diverted into the LA aqueduct. The old lake bed has become a construction site for a mitigation project, in an area which now has the highest toxic air pollution in North America.

For three weeks, the 55 walkers walked for 207 miles over a period of three weeks. The trek went through the Owens Valley and the Eastern Sierra watershed, and then entered Kern County, and finally LA County. During that entire walk, the walkers only saw three open bodies of water: the Haiwee Reservoir, the Bouquet Reservoir, and Little Lake. Much of this walk was spent following the pipes that lead to the LA Aqueduct.

Sam DeBoskey, one of the walkers said, "I think I fell in love with the earth again. I think, through walking 207 miles, through slowing down, through laughing and crying with others, through praying, I refound the Friend, the eternal partner, the Lover (as Rumi would call it), and strengthened, deepened, expanded my relationship with the environment."

Another walker, Marie Winter, said, "What a deep way of prayer in action - the simplicity of walking, sleeping under the stars, sharing food and thoughts. What an opportunity to be in a group with so much diversity, so many ways to relate to water and life. And yet there was a common ground where we could find each other, exploring different points of view, experiences and expertise, and a huge variety of ways we define prayer, action, activism."

The night sky about 20 miles from Mojave.

Janka Striffler, was a walker and also worked on the kitchen team. She related, "You have to stay for a long time with your prayer and follow your heart. Keep the relationships going and invite the people to create circles. Keep learning about the history of the place and the people. Be aware what you look at. There is beauty everywhere as well. Do not block your grieving. Take your time to cry and then ask: What is yours to do?"

Prior to departing that day's base camp, a walker offers a water blessing.

Obviously, the journey was a profoundly moving experience for participants, moving across the natural landscape and seeing the changes that human beings have made to the natural setting. Indeed, those changes affect the location and amount of available water. Worth considering and pondering an individual choice of action.

Thanks for information from this article on Walking Water: http://walking-water.org/the-pilgrimage/the-pilgrimage-2016/; and the above link.

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