A review by lory_enterenchanted
Landlines by Raynor Winn

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad

4.0

"In the darkness of the tent I realize that's all this walk is -- a hope, a need, a prayer for the dance of light to resume."

"The biggest skill...is holding on to the knowledge that however tough it gets -- whether it's blisters, mild concussion, or the boredom of one more mile down a path that never ends -- you will get through it and in some as yet undiscovered way, you will be the better for it."

"We've revolutionized the way we live, made breathtaking and miraculous discoveries, and yet we seem totally incapable of changing ourselves."

"'I read something once, a philosophy from Sufism I think. It's the idea that the action of walking for a long time allows the world to fall away; eventually the walker and the path become one, the walker reaches the wayless way.'"

"The last years have been all about adaptation. But we're all moving into a world where we need to adapt, in ways we can't imagine right now. Adapt to a new world, and a changing climate, like the cuckoos moving north and the midges moving south, adapt our borders, adapt our thinking about why we choose to have borders, adapt to a new life, adapt to a way of living it. Adapt to survive."

"I realize that we don't always have to seek out the easiest path, or take the one that's presented to us; sometimes it's the hardest one that holds the greatest riches."

"These paths that cross our lands take human energy and imprint it on the earth, connecting us to it, leaving both the land and the human changed by that connection. Thousands of feet over thousands of years have trodden many of the same trails we have, tracing their passage on to the landscape, imprinting their memories into the soil What remains are not just paths, they're precious landlines that connect us to the earth, to our past and to each other. We've followed them for a thousand miles, seen so much, heard so many stories, and now, at the edge of the land, we've become something other than just walkers. We're at the point where time and place and energy combine, where we become the path, the walker and the story. No need for runestones, it's all held within us; we're already part of our landlines, part of the song of the land."