Mappings | Two Months Walking the Everyday

2020 unfolded spaces which I did not expect to navigate.

Setting forth, around every turn, there seemed to be a new question. The questions asked reached deep into my spirit and challenged the full spectrum of my being. Clear and sharp questions pertaining to health, justice, rights, care, and existence flooded the city and my everyday. Questions long neglected or considered too distant arrived rapidly into my foreground. They demanded a response regardless if I felt ready or even capable of taking a next step.

Stepping forth, I came to focus on one step at a time as a way to ultimately move the required great distance. Part of my process to comprehend the world being formed and to answer these questions was to be present within myself and a very fluid city by walking - everyday.

May

Emerging from the tight spring lock down, I walked May as a way to see what city and life now existed beyond my apartment walls. A breathing in.

As fall approached the city and life came in to a new energy. An energy formed through repeated shifts. Repeated moments of pressure and resistance. Repeated moments to start again. Six months of voids, opportunities, closures, or achievements forming and reforming under my feet, under the city flowed like water - out of reach.

September

Exploring an undulating city, I walked September to gain a better understanding of the new. A city forged over the past months to urgently take up questions of race, health, equity, and the environment. What place exists for me to inhabit? What is my place in this habitat?

These walks make no claim to a ground that is solid or fully resolved. In fact, to truly answer the questions asked, the ground may need to flow again. These walks are an opening for me to join with others to continue. A reassuring step forward that within this place I call home - I am not alone.

Below are the mappings of these walks.

Explore the full _walking series of posts to see the daily images and mappings compiled to become a month long narrative of my everyday.

A deeper understanding of my walking practice can be found in the _footnotes Why I walk Series.

September 30

Revolving Forward.

September 30, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 29

Center Edge

A centering walk along the edge of the city, continent, sea. A nourishing turn.

September 29, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 28

Perspective

September 28, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 27

Ground Research – In progress

September 27, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 26

Stitching

Coming together to formulate new reassuring steps toward possible.

September 26, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 25

Origin

Bridges of Post Alley.

September 25, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 24

Pier 62 – New Old Ground

A quickened breath. A nervous energy. A lifting spirit. A cascading joy emerged as I stepped beyond land to the new old ground of Pier 62. The return of Pier 62 to the heart of Seattle and to the heart of my everyday brought to me a calm and repose not felt in many many days.

As an urban dweller it is difficult to cope at times with the energy and tensions that produce compelling and captivating cities. The energy that captivates at times is a weight needing lifted. The value of spaces of repose and reflection in the city are often overlook spaces. Taken for granted. Seen as empty or in need of a use. What some see as empty and underutilized I experience as full and overflowing with nourishing joy.

Turn away from the city – Step from solid ground – Step to the water – Step away and walk out beyond the sounds – Energy receding and breeze approaching – Feel the water and wind negotiate a balance – Balance yourself with the new enveloping rhythm – Breath in a nourishing calm – Turn toward the city anew.

One of my special spaces has returned. A part of me has returned.

September 24, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 23

Say Her Name – Breonna Taylor

A march for justice. Falling rain mixing with tears and voices that reflect back a hope and passion that change is possible. Change is needed.

A damp night with bodies and voices claiming civic spaces of commerce and justice to voice the necessary call for change and, in solidarity, reflect upon the passing of yet another everyday hero at the hands of a broken system.

September 23, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 22

Refracted Focus

A bridge I have crossed countless times over the years was seen in new light. Illuminating stories both cut and cast into the ever shifting ground of Seattle. A ground which is far from stable but one needing to be crossed regardless. Even though I have crossed this bridge before it is still one that I continue to simultaneously build as I cross. As is life.

September 22, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 21

Bedrock.

Unrelenting support gathered and given by the special people and environment which surround me.

September 21, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 20

Support Assembled

Turning a corner reassured that the bonds and components assembled will last to hold new layers with grace and character.

September 20, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 19

Replenish.

A walk in a second day of rain was a wondrous reminder of a life and city defined and nourished by water.

September 19, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 18

A Rain Day!!!

A cleansing rain began to fall. Spirits began to rise. The transformation underway is cause for comfort and a release of anxiety.

September 18, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 17

Reassuring.

The knowledge that I am walking along paths walked by others before. That I am not alone in my questioning and making. That boundaries, when reached, can be defined by creativity and exuberance.

September 17, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 16

Access to the Imaginable.

A walk that was begun in a heavy air. A walk to just make the simplest of moves. A walk that opened into surprises and a narrative of the possible.

September 16, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 15

Full Empty.

September 15, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 14

Ecology Written

A walk through a layered ecology. A spatial and written text emerged along the contour and time lines of my imagination and the city.

September 14, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 13

Collapsing Support.

A another walk bounded by roof top perimeter and smoked filled horizon witnessed a rapid movement of constructed landscape to ground. Posing yet another iteration of the question at hand – Where to develop support within continual movement and shifting incline?

September 13, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale

September 12

Opaque to Clarity.

A walk amidst a smoke filled fog along Puget Sound recalls Lewis Carroll. As if, I was walking along the edge of the Ocean Chart from The Hunting of the Snark.

He had bought a large map representing the sea, Without the least vestige of land: And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be A map they could all understand.

“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators, Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?” So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply “They are merely conventional signs!

“Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes! But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank:  (So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best— A perfect and absolute blank!”

Ships passing in the night known only through audible horns. A flood of tide and smoke fog calmly pulling an introspective comforter over the city. Internal light reflected back to illuminate a steady gaze and eternal flows of life and nourishment.

September 12, 2020 | red represents the days walk | not to scale