Blog #1 for the Pilgrimage for COP26
On Sunday 17th October 2021, I embarked on the Pilgrimage for COP26 with a group of like-minded others. We assembled in Dunbar for a celebration of Natalie Taylor’s the Keeper of the Soils, a speech from Alastair McIntosh (author of Poacher’s Pilgrimage), and other activities organised by North Lights Arts.
On 29th October, we walked into Glasgow after travelling parts of the John Muir Way and St Ninian’s Way, on foot, very wet, in a collective effort. We made “A walk and a learning journey … to reflect on the climate and ecological crisis in anticipation of the COP26.”
Our route visited:
- Dunbar
- North Berwick
- Aberlady
- Portobello
- Edinburgh (where we will stay on Saturday and Sunday)
- South Queensferry
- Bo’ness
- Falkirk
- Kirkintilloch
- Glasgow
taking in coastal, cycle, urban, industrial, canal and river paths.
Many of you will know that I enjoy walking secular pilgrimage, that the act of stepping out each day with a simple pack on my back satisfies something vital in me. Walking sequential trails which connect town to country to village to city, whether the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Via Sacra in Austria or the St Magnus Way in Orkney, is a way to reflect on, process and enliven my regular life.
This pilgrimage differs specifically from any of the others I have done before because it was done in community. I am a solitary walker and I value my privacy highly, even though I do meet people along the path and enjoy their company at times. This COP26 pilgrimage was very much a group activity. It invited people to walk together for a few hours, several days or the whole, and to be a part of a growing conversation about the many facets of the climate emergency in the light of the international meeting of world leaders at the beginning of November in Glasgow. We discussed, thought about, and inevitably came up with questions, maybe even some suggested solutions (practical / ideal) in the face of the situation we found ourselves in. Whatever happened we were able to support each other in our feelings – grief, frustration, anger, hopelessness – in the face of what was happening to our beautiful world and, sadly, still is.
My focus for the pilgrimage was on the link between grief and walking, something that arises over and over, not just for me but for others as well (see the book Marram by Leonie Charlton for example). My enquiry built on my previous writing (Working with Death and Loss in Shiatsu Practice’ (Singing Dragon 2020) and articles/blogs) and the Shiatsu client work I have been engaged in over the past 30 years, as well as my own personal rambles.
I collected a feather a day, usually the first I came across, as these long-time symbols of freedom and transcendence, and their common use in ritual, are often connected with the feelings we have when we are grieving or bereaved.
Walking without a donkey 