In our weekly mindfulness meditation group, I’ll focus this week on walking meditations, which I experienced in abundance at a retreat with Thich Nhat Hahn many years ago. Hundreds of us walked slowly, silently with Thich Nhat Hahn and his community around the campus of Stonehill College.

There’s a gatha, or poem, you can recite in your mind to make the meditation deeper:

The mind can travel in a thousand directions

but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace

With every step, a gentle wind blows

With every step, a flower blooms

It wasn’t as much a technique, as a feeling. Each step, connecting with the earth, healing the earth, the earth healing us, as described in this video. And to imagine: with every step, a flower blooms. That our steps leave imprints, and a flower can grow and bloom in these steps.

We let go of fears and anxieties, so that our footsteps, and daily lives and interactions, leave an imprint to bloom.