Microcosm:
a little world; especially : the human race or human nature seen as an epitome of the world or the universe.

Walking down a country road in northern Minnesota recently, I became aware of all the webs blanketing the morning, hanging on the plants that lined the dusty road, creating little worlds vulnerable to destruction by human, animal and elements. Sitting among the green, lush plants, fibers spun into lace-like doilies dotted the roadside, fresh with dew, sparkling in the sun. I stopped for a moment and gazed at them thinking about their minuscule nature in a much larger world, thinking about how I had no ability to do what this insect had done, no idea as to the intricacies creating this fragile beauty. My moving presence seemed harsh and bombastic in comparison.

The word microcosm kept coming to mind on that summer morning that promised to heat up and plunge us into humidity and sweaty discomfort. I thought of all the ‘little worlds’ that exist that I mostly ignore or dismiss. Being human can allow for thinking, believing, living as if we are the most important, the pinnacle of Creation. Being human can find us moving through the world without attention to the many microcosms of existence that show themselves all around. I believe we are lesser for this way of being.

That encounter with the morning webs awakened my eyes and my heart to the many microcosms that are all around. I began to see the little worlds that existed in glistening pools and along the forest paths. Things were happening, lives were being lived by creatures I could not see or even recognize. This way of noticing can create a practice of walking with humility in the world. To step wrongly or cavalierly has the potential to harm or even destroy a world of which we are unaware, a world that is home to some thing. And this is to say nothing of the potential to miss out on the beauty and wonder of such a microscopic world.

Back from the north woods, I began to think of all the microcosms. Microcosms of relationship and community. All the little worlds I have not experienced, will never experience, can not understand. Whole communities of people exist whose life experience and way of walking in the world is so vastly different from mine. In these communities people are weaving webs I could not possibly create, ways of making family and relationship that is as full of fierce love as my own. How much richer we would all be if we could wonder, marvel, and protect their webs as powerfully as we do our own. To be willing to work for their small world with the same force and passion as I do my own might make for a healthier and more whole world. To say “your little world matters as much as mine” might be what saves us.

Sometimes a thing as small as a web can be what turns a head and eventually a heart. Today I will try not to move through the world with my big human feet acting as if I am the center of the Universe. Today I will move gently and carefully so as to notice, and not harm, the microcosms of life all around me. Today I will practice noticing and then blessing all the little worlds holding the sacredness and gift of this day.

Solvitur ambulando — “It is solved by walking.”
~St. Augustine

These last weeks have found me walking. And walking. And walking. As I prepare for the pilgrimage on a part of the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, I am training by walking several…sometimes many…miles a day. Walking through neighborhoods I know, along the rivers that flow near our house and through parks, around lakes and nature centers that provide shade in the heat and uneven terrain that I think might be similar to the paths I will eventually walk. I have spent considerable time thinking about the act of walking.

Anyone who has ever watched a young child begin to join mind and body in the pursuit of movement knows the effort, the challenge, the trial and error that goes into this act most of us do without thinking. To be present to that push and pull of muscle and matter as a young one tries over and over again to stand and then to thrust forward, first one foot and then the other, is a powerful thing to witness.

This walking I will be doing with a dear friend will likely challenge us in ways we have yet to imagine. While we will have readied our bodies as much as possible, we will no doubt be, at times, exhausted and even ready to give up. We will be present to landscape both foreign and breath taking and will also be confronted with the mundane images of people living ordinary lives, doing ordinary work. All the while, we will be walking until we reach the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where pilgrims have been arriving for hundreds of years, some having walked many months. Why?

I am sure the reasons for walking are as many as those who walk. Many are coming to a place they hold sacred because they believe the bones of St. James, a follower of Jesus, are buried there. Others come to remember…who they are, who they might believe God to be, how they want to be in the world. Some are offering some kind of penance…for what they have done, what they have left undone, what they might not even be able to see. Still others walk for the sheer challenge of it, to say they did it, to be more healthy and fit for having walked so many miles.

Last week I found myself walking alone for nearly four hours through Lebanon Hills Regional Park. That is a long time to keep yourself company! As I walked along I remembered this quote supposedly made by St. Augustine: Solvitur ambulando — It is solved by walking. It led me to think about all the people who have walked the Camino and other pilgrimage routes, many in the pursuit of a solution. A solution to a big life question. A solution to a simple one. A solution within a relationship or a vocation or career. A solution about how to be engaged in the state of the world or clarity to see a situation with more wisdom. The simple act of walking can bring about many solutions.

Of course, within moments I began to think about the people I know and care about who have lost the ability to physically walk. Those who must now use a walker or cane to help them find balance or those whose forward motion in the world comes in the form of wheels that have become the extension of their legs. My prayer is that each is still able to embrace the metaphor of St. Augustine’s intention, that whatever form their forward motion takes gives them a sense of moving toward the solution they seek.

I have some thought about why I am walking. I also trust I will discover that there are probably reasons for this pilgrimage that have been hiding deep within me someplace. What I do have is a faith in those that have seeded the path before me with their prayers, their intentions, their exhaustion and exhilaration. Their footsteps will become a part of the journey and will, I believe, lead me to whatever solutions the Universe may be holding out.

Perhaps this is the way it always is whether on an ancient pilgrim path or the sidewalks of our cities. We are held by the footsteps of those that have gone before urging us to walk until we reach the solution we seek.