Skip to content

A pilgrim's way

Reflections on walking, gardening and writing

  • A pilgrim’s way
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • A pilgrim’s way
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog

I am happiest while hiking, moving one foot after another, carrying only a bottle of water, a bag of snacks, notebook and pen, slicker in case of bad weather and a few bucks in case I stumble across a cafe. Walking slows the world down and opens me to all that surrounds me, moss and wind, muck and meadow.  Walking is a meditative, simplifying act, exhausting, discovering, deeply satisfying.

This is strange given that I spend  probably 350 days a year not hiking. At best, I walk within the limits of practical considerations — time, distance and all I have to do.  There are chores and visits, causes and obligations. Too often I walk on the treadmill at the YMCA, walking a virtual path through the Canadian Rockies that does not smell of pine.

But walking nourishes me as writing  does — allowing me to look more deeply at life and wonder at what I see. Since retiring as a journalist and nonprofit director two years ago, I’ve been working to find my groove as a fiction writer, often caught in the net of self-criticism and reluctant to release my work to the world. With this blog, I hope to develop the practice of writing as I walk — with faithfulness, openness and trust in the world.

About

Lynda McDonnell is a writer, editor and hiker in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since retiring from running a small nonprofit in 2014, she’s been writing essays, working on her first novel and discovering the joys and uncertainties of life beyond child-rearing and full-time work. Writing and hiking are her favorite ways to examine the world.

Read more About

Contact

I’m eager to hear from you. Share comments and responses here.

Read more Contact

A grandmother’s rage

A Grandmother’s Rage Lynda McDonnell When I was a girl growing up in the boom years of the 1950s, new suburbs filled up with tract houses for growing families. Three- or four-child households were routine, and Catholic families were even bigger. One of my aunts had nine children, another eight, so our six felt like…

Read more A grandmother’s rage

Menu

  • A pilgrim’s way
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Follow Following
    • A pilgrim's way
    • Join 30 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A pilgrim's way
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar