On the road…

With a very mixed feeling of both sadness and joy I depart from the known to the unknown. I kiss sleeping children and understanding but tested wife and off I go. I will walk one week in Trondheim Norway, to the Swedish border, where the family will hook up again. If everything goes according to plan I will on and off this summer walk towards the future.

The project ”The Path” is a ”song-walk” beginning in Trondheim in April and ending in Copenhagen in September. During the trip through three countries and three seasons (close to four; up in the mountains some distance away from Trondheim there is still lots of snow on the paths…) and we will go through three themes; Environment, Integration and Existence. (Make “Environment” “Mother Nature” instead – and you have our Swedish acronym MIX!)

Through walking, talking and singing we are on the lookout for the future.

What is the purpose a journalist asks in the telephone. “Fellowship and joy” I answer. That is how simple it is, really. But sometimes when I am in that mood I have of course answered that you cannot know that until afterwards. You walk to learn why you walk. And there is a lot in that answer as well. The path is the goal.

“Anders con brio” – Anders with Spirit.

I have already made an acquaintance that I think will develop into a real good friendship. It was waiting for me in the barn at home in Klockargården, Dala-Floda.

It has been standing there since the last child crawled out of the pram for the last time. I was actually looking for something else the day before departure, but found a rusty but fully functional “Brio” pram-frame. There you are my friend, I thought, took it out, wiped away the spider-web and greased the wheels.

Already on the first leg of the journey from the Stockholm-flat to Arlanda, I realised what a friend this is. The wheel is indeed invented already, and that quite some time ago, but still we learn of new uses for it and we as humans realize how ingenious it really is. You never see anyone carry a suitcase any longer. Will we see humans carry heavy rucksack in the forest in the future? After having met Brio in the barn I am not so sure any longer. Such an immense amount of energy you save through pushing your 25 pound pack with one finger. Maybe it will not go that easily on the mountain paths but it is worth a try.

I cannot but think about my fellow walker Peter’s window in Mundekulla Course and Conference Centre in Småland, where we will come walking in August for a course on the theme of “Existence”. The window is made of an old wagon-wheel where the 12 spokes represent man’s different religions as the paths to one and the same hub. In the centre you find the truth. We are all on our way there but we all come from different directions. In the middle we meet and see our unity. When some spokes want to be longer and more important than others it makes for a bumpy ride for humankind. What a pleasant journey we would have as humankind if the spokes of the wheel would respect each other and serve its purpose in humility!

That would make a enormous impact– like the difference of carrying your burden on the back or roll it “con Brio” – with Spirit!