4000km, Follow your Heart

To follow the heart….

I have heard this expression countless times and it is first now that I am beginning to understand what it means. In this post I'll tell you a little bit how this understanding came for me through the events that unfolded the past month on the peacewalk.

It all began with me and Ebba feeling a change of hearts. The weather in Hungary was getting cooler, Autumn made its presence and we decided to leave the safe but slow track along the Donau to head straight toward Belgrade.

On our way we had the most beautiful encounters with hosts from the hungarian pilgrim association and a very special meeting with a dear priest Arpad who had us as guests in his hometown near the Serbian border.

Entering Serbia we noticed great differences already at the border. Because of the migration of refugees coming to Hungary (EU) from Serbia (not EU), Hungary has built a barbed wire fence all along the border. Passing the fence and passport control, as a swedish citizen you become aware of what a privilege it is to be able to walk freely like this, and how it's not for granted for everyone.

I personally feel this free roaming between borders should not be a privilege but a mandatory right as citizens of the world, but it seems we have some more steps to take as a species before we can include every ethnicity and nationality in our sense of brotherhood and sisterhood.

Walnuts for the road ahead

Arriving to Belgrade on a rainy day, me and Ebba were so grateful to finally have some days of rest, and to also have her parents coming down from Sweden to be with us. We had a beautiful time together and during this week, me and Ebba founded the organisation that will become our platform for our work the coming years, the Ways2Peace.

Traditional swedish card game "plump"

This is the peace quest flyer we hand out on our way, can you guess what it says?

We also got to give away the dear peacewagon that's been with the peacewalk for nearly 2000km and it will now become a walking library in one of the suburbs to Belgrade in a visionary project for new ways of teaching and learning.

During this week it also became clear that Ebba is going to take off for her own journey for awhile and her first stop was Germany, before she headed to the Zen Buddhist monastery Plum Village in France. Here she is now staying for a silent retreat to dive deep into the inner stillness of the heart.

Thus we parted ways temporarily with much love (and tears) on the sacred Mt Kosmaj, which used to be a site of worship of the Romans to the Earth goddess Maia/Gaia.

It felt strange to walk by myself again and after meditating and praying for support of the mountain, I went down in the valley below with my intention set on crossing the rest of Serbia.

Suddenly, I step on a branch which ruptures the side of my foot and some dirt gets into the wound. I clean it best I can and walk to the next town. Even though it's a pretty big town, there are no hostels to be found, so I head to the church.

The priest is very kind but tells me he cannot help me to find accomodation for the night, which surprises me. I keep looking and realize my foot is starting to hurt more. Finally I find a hostel far outside town so I ask the priest again after the sermon if any of his priest colleagues might host me but again no. I walk towards the setting sun and end up in a hostel, hoping that the foot will be good tomorrow.

Unfortunately (or fortunately as we shall see), it still hurts when I wake up. I realize it's more than 20km to the next town, and I feel a deep need for resting, but the hostel is having some construction work so resting here does not seem feasible. I take my walking sticks and make the long arduous hike to the next town.

During this day I feel unusually lonely and lost. Something deep inside tells me it shouldn't be like this, it wasn't supposed to be like this, somehow, walking with a wounded by myself without companions and sleeping in shabby hostels. This way I won't arrive to my destination in every step, which is peace ~ walk to (2) peace.

Let's take 4000km of steps back to the beginning.

The year is 2016 and I'm preparing for a long walk, from Sweden to Syria. However, a few days before this walk is about to begin, I have a deeply mystical experience and which makes me realize that I'm not supposed to walk straight to Syria, I'm going to walk around the world to peace. And peace all around the world will be my destination.

That was the start. And now after 4000km of walking, I understood that I didn't have to take the walking part so literal anymore. I always knew that I would have to take boats on many occasions and I had already planned for the Transibirian train next year to enter Asia. And here I was on the Serbian countryside with a wounded foot, all by myself in a weather that was growing more and more unsuitable for long distance walking.

I also knew that in Greece, a sacred vase from Tibet was waiting for me (it's a whole other story in itself, for the next letter) After feeling a sense of relief and joy, and gratefulness of this time of "only walking", I felt a deep shift in myself and in the Walk2Peace as well, and I jumped on a train to Greece.

Immediately things started to unfold in a smooth way again - I was meeting the right people at the right time with the right intentions.

For me, this experience was a deep lesson to not to get stuck in my ideas about how I should do things, but to follow the guidance that mother nature and the little thorny branch provided to me.

To follow the most honest and well meaning way that I can be of service to this planet and all beings here - for me this is to follow my heart. And now this journey, the journey to peace has taken me to Greece, Athens and the island of Aegina.

Istanbul is still part of the route, and I hope you wish to join us on the New Years celebration, which you can read more about here.

With much love and wishes of peace

Albin

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Ceremony at the grounds where the first "democratic" votes were held in Athens. To my right, the singer Ariella from Minnesota, the Greek dancer Vasiliki and yoga teacher Ioanna. A sacred sisterhood and brotherhood connection made possible by a small clay pot from the Himalays.