EDITOR’S NOTE: There are TWO in-person walks this month, on Saturday and next Wednesday
Next In-person walks: Saturday, February 14, 9-10 am and Wednesday, February 18, 3 pm (Ash Wednesday)
Covenant Presbyterian Church back parking lot, 2222 at Mo-Pac, Austin
Next Zoom discussion: Feb 14, 2026 10:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada), Zoom link is here.
By Janet Davis
Walk In: Losing Our Lives by Finding Ground
GROUND
is what lies beneath our feet. It is the place where we already stand; a state of recognition, the place or the circumstances to which we belong, whether we wish to or not. It is what holds and supports us, but also what we do not want to be true: it is what challenges us, physically or psychologically, irrespective of our hoped for needs. It is the living, underlying foundation that tells us what we are, where we are, what season we are in and what, no matter what we wish in the abstract, is about to happen in our body, in the world or in the conversation between the two.
To come to ground is to find a home in circumstances, and in the very physical body we inhabit in the midst of those circumstances, and above all to face the truth, no matter how difficult that truth may be; to come to ground is to begin the courageous conversation, to step into difficulty, and, by taking that first step, begin the movement through all difficulties, to find the support and foundation that has been beneath our feet all along: a place to step onto, a place on which to stand, and a place from which to step.
David Whyte, Consolations, pg. 107-108
Questions
The Buddhists teach that reality is, ultimately, a refuge… though, to be fair, many times we prefer our illusions and magical thinking.
Are there aspects of your current “ground” (circumstances, reality, body, psychological state, etc.) that you resist or that challenge you? Can you imagine relating to that hard truth differently, as a starting place of comfort?
What illusions or magical thinking patterns do you tend to hold onto? Are any ripe for release? Is there a courageous conversation with reality that you are ready to meet? A ground you are willing to stand firmly upon?
Center: Meeting the Holy One in the Reality of Dust
All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners
or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—
did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.
This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.
This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.
So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.
Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
Questions
It is a (sometimes hard and)holy moment to be “right sized” each year as we are marked by dust, confessing aloud: “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
What emotions rise as you are marked this year? What meaning do these words or this practice have for you?
Can you hold the reality of being dust without that including shame? If you are dust, who is God?
Walk Out: Saving our Lives by Taking the First Step
Start Close In
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
David Whyte, from River Flow: New & Selected Poems
Questions
What feels like the most challenging part of your ground, your reality, at this moment?
Regarding this challenge, where have you been tempted to be distracted by the questions of others or where are you trying to follow someone else’s heroics?
What is your own small voice trying to say? What is the first step you need to take from the reality of the ground you are standing upon at this moment? (How we love to look beyond and ponder anything but that first step!)
What practices or communities support this kind of courage?