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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Francis Davis, Academic and social entrepreneur

Walking in Silence

Good morning.

Each year I walk from New Milton to Emsworth in Hampshire.

In case you don’t know it, New Milton stands where, sitting next to the Solent’s crashing waves, you can view the Needles nestling off the Isle of Wight. Emsworth, by contrast, is a village in the now ecologically significant Chichester Harbour which, in 1902, provided oysters for a dinner party said to have terminally poisoned the Dean of a famous Cathedral.

The 60 mile walk between these two points is illuminating: For the most part one journeys with the sea as a constant companion. On the landside though everything changes: Salt marshes give way to yacht marinas, rare birds to chasing sea gulls. Visibly wealthy hamlets are passed towards small towns. Those sitting on the prom now rely on wheelchairs and electric scooters for their mobility.

Some who you pass are old and frail. Others are young but limbless following military service in far away places. Shared cups of tea crack open lost smiles.

I walk to be silent; to listen again to a snapshot of England. The smells, the noises, plants and people, even the crunch of stones underfoot, are never quite the same each year. I also walk because, for all my luck, my experience of childhood violence and working in conflict zones can, sometimes, beckon my thoughts to despairing places. In this – well beyond the Hampshire coast – I know I am not alone this morning and every morning.

Dear God, wherever you may be, walk with me today. Help me to hope, and to cherish anew every encounter of people, place, water and words with a complete tranquillity in all my senses.

Amen

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