WALK
WITH EARTH – TO HONOR THE EARTH
Starting in 1997, Rolene Walker envisioned a project to bring together
her personal beliefs and a desire to make a difference in the world.
The result was Walk With Earth, which was planned as a pilgrimage
on foot from California to Chile, to start in the spring of 2008.
Her plan was “to exchange information about sustainable practices
for caring for the earth that can be shared among people in all
of the Americas.”
Rolene finished the walk in January 2010. She is continuing her
work by planning four Conferences of Appropriate Technology in Latin
America in 2010.
“This was a journey of discovery,” says Rolene,“
to exchange information about sustainable practices for caring for
the earth that can be shared among people in all of the Americas.”
We see all living beings as related and irreplaceable, and we embrace
a holistic world view as opposed to a mechanistic one. We
heard the stories and songs from people in all the Americas about
the beauty of the places where they live, and acknowledged their
sadness about degraded areas and loss of species. We learned the
histories and traditions about caring for the earth, and considered
what we can do to make our environment more livable.
We want to honor the ties people in the Americas have to their lands
and surroundings. We would like to encourage people to care for
the earth as if it were a Garden of Eden and to walk with the Earth
rather than simply over it.
We want to remove our sense of separateness, to promote sustainable
urban and farming activities, to support education about the natural
world, to learn to see ourselves as gardeners of the world’s
forests rather than stewards.”
MAKING OUR ENVIRONMENT MORE LIVABLE
A major focus of the walk was exchanging and gathering information
about methods of caring for the earth through our everyday activities,
such as biodiesel fuel for automobiles, solar ovens for cooking,
simple but effective water purification systems.
WHO WALKED
People from a wide range of ages and backgrounds walked. They
included a retired teacher from Mexico, students from the US, Mexico,
Canada, and England. We walked 10 miles a day and visited
schools, churches or community groups as well as organizations devoted
to improving the environment and people who share our concern for
the earth.
