• Walking , Henry David Thoreau


• Reveries of the Solitary Walker , Jean-Jacques Rousseau


• Ki (Trees), Kōda Aya


• Méditations poétiques , Alphonse de Lamartine


• A Field Guide to Getting Lost , Oristelle Bonis et Rebecca Solnit


• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek , Annie Dillard


• The Gardener and His Master , Jean de La Fontaine


• A Philosophy of Walking , Frédéri

Tao-ch’uan says, “Looking for someone else isn’t as good as looking for yourself. My song goes: ‘Water drops turn into ice, we believe / green willows, fragrant plants, forms without end / spring flowers, autumn moon, things never stop / listen in quiet to the partridge cry.”

letting go of your thoughts and of control, turning inward and listening, being present, regularly resting in what’s peaceful, living in trust. All of it is about exploring the possibility of finding something that’s more real than our thoughts, more valuable than our thoughts.

When you add the noise of the external world to all the roles you take in it, it is easy to lose sight of who you really are. To find your Element, you need to regain that perspective. One way is to create time and space to be alone with yourself, to experience who you are when no one else wants anything from you and the noise has stopped. One meth