Why the Name?
The name of the blog was both carefully considered and an emergent accident. It’s a mix of deliberateness and chance.
We wanted a name that reflected something active. Perhaps this was in reaction to the restrictions of 2020 during the pandemic, though it is more likely a reflection that we want to be active beings in this world. As a result, we needed a verb, a sense of doing.
At the same time, we wanted the name to reflect our focus of exploring our relationship with the Earth and how this impacts our daily lives - we didn’t want to be doing something in isolation, by ourselves. So we knew that a sense of being ‘alongside’ or ‘with’ or ‘relating to’ was also necessary.
Finally, we knew we had to reference the Earth, our home, in some form. With these three elements, the name just popped into being in the middle of a conversation, and we’ve been learning more about what it means ever since. Here are some reflections on the name after it suggested itself to us on a sunny Tuesday in 2020.
Walking with the land
The land is ever present in our lives. It is our home, the foundation of our existence and of all the other lives that form our ecosystems. It is also the most prominent and visible embodiment of the Earth. Our relationship to the Earth is most clearly reflected in how we move through the land, interact with it and acknowledge our impact on it. Land is the Earth on a scale that we can grasp and engage with on a daily basis. It is less intimidating than thinking about how we relate to the whole of the planet (unless you’re a geologist, and the idea of relating to the whole planet is pretty exciting!).
Being in relationship with anyone or anything requires engagement, and one of the deepest ways of engaging is to share an activity. We can do this, for example, when we work together to build something, create an artwork together, or take a walk with a friend. Walking is a very powerful act, as it keeps everything at a human scale and thus reminds us of our place in the world. We cannot skip the tough bits on a walk, we cannot rush a journey that is walked, and we have to be present to keep ourselves safe.
When we walk, we can either walk on the land or walk with the land. When we walk on the land, we experience it as a backdrop to our journey and our time with it is transactional, where we seek to obtain benefit from it. When we walk with the land, we engage with it and invite the land - the Earth - along for the journey as our companion, and vice versa. We are open to learning from the Earth.
This provides a richer experience of the more than human, one that benefits us mentally and physically, but also feeds the connection between us and our home. We believe that the more these bonds are tended to, the healthier our relationship with the Earth will be.
We recognise that not everyone can walk. For us ‘walking with the land’ is a metaphor for an evolving journey towards reconnection that is a shared endeavour - not just for us humans alone but in relationship with the Earth. This journey can be undertaken by anyone who wishes and does not require any skill or capacity, beyond the desire to learn more about how we relate to the Earth.
An invitation
Perhaps most importantly, the name is an invitation to join a journey that is both humble and vitally important. Anyone can set out on this journey. We will all journey in our own ways at our own speeds, but we can share the experiences together. This is the invitation of this blog: we hope you may wish to walk with the land alongside us a while.