about walking

walking is communicative. it may be one of the oldest forms of communication we have.

if you are walking with somebody, you are synchronizing. perhaps not perfectly, but inevitably. first your pace. sometimes your steps. occasionally even your breathing. and if the walk is long enough, maybe your heartbeats, your thoughts, your moods, your state of mind and soul.

walking together is different from simply being together. there is no table separating you. no screen. no agenda. no obligation to maintain eye contact.

the conversation flows alongside the path, carried forward by the movement itself. words arrive when they are ready. silences are allowed to exist. sometimes they are even welcomed.

and if you are truly walking together, something remarkable happens. you become friends. sometimes quickly. sometimes unexpectedly.

sometimes with people you would never have met in the ordinary choreography of everyday life. unlikely friends. although the older i get, the less i believe in unlikely friendships. and the less i believe in coincidences.

it is almost two years ago now that i was descending a mountain in tyrol. or rather, i was taking my time descending it. it was a bit steep. a man approached from behind and overtook me with considerable determination and speed.

i looked at him and said something along the lines of: ‘not so fast. why are you in such a hurry?’

he slowed down. we started talking. what followed was perhaps fifteen minutes of conversation.

just two strangers walking down a mountain together. after those fifteen minutes, we went our separate ways. or so it seemed.

because ever since then, we have remained in contact, crossing paths from time to time through messages, continued conversation. walking in different locations.

his name is johann, or hans in short. a fellow austrian.

and now, almost two years after that chance encounter on a mountain trail, another reminder arrived. two days after returning from the camino de santiago, a parcel found its way to my mailbox.

inside was hans' book. its title could hardly have been more fitting:

das leben bewegen (move life)

the book is a treasure trove. written by hans, edited by his wife, plus a few additions by his friends.

a collection of experiences, observations, stories, reflections, and lessons gathered over decades of attentive living. living a good life.

it is not merely a book about life. it is a book that has emerged from life. from movement. from walking and cycling. from encounters. from curiosity. from paying attention.

from walking one's own path while remaining open to the paths of others.

sometimes we think we are merely moving through the world. but perhaps the world is also moving through us. every now and then, on a mountain path, a pilgrim route, or an ordinary road, two journeys intersect. and continue changed because of it.

so why was he walking so fast back then? it turns out he had a good reason. a taxi was waiting for him down in the valley. from there he was heading into the upper lech valley to visit the anna dengel house there.

at the time, that name meant nothing to me. perhaps it means nothing to you either. so who was anna dengel?

anna dengel (1892–1980) was an austrian physician and nun, a woman who quietly achieved extraordinary things. she studied medicine in austria, france, and ireland. when she graduated in 1920, she was among the first female physicians in tyrol, at a time when women entering the medical profession was still far from common.

but her story extends far beyond personal achievement. she went on to found the medical mission sisters, formally known as the missionary sisters of the sacred heart.

under her leadership, the congregation established hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities around the world. in total, 48 hospitals were founded through their work.

i must admit that until meeting hans, i had never heard of anna dengel, despite growing up a mere hour away from her birthplace.

yet as soon as he told me about her, an unexpected connection emerged. during one of my trips to ghana, i visited a hospital that had been founded by the medical mission sisters.

suddenly this historical figure was no longer just a name from a distant past. the circle closed. a thread connected an austrian mountain trail, a hospital in west africa, and a conversation with a stranger-become-friend who had overtaken me on a descent in tyrol.

the world can be surprisingly small. or perhaps surprisingly interconnected.

from that point onward, i followed hans' adventures with growing interest. and there were many adventures to follow or read about from his past. stories of long-distance cycling journeys (from the north cape to istanbul) and extended hikes.

and then he mentioned a project that sounded almost impossible. for the summer of 2025, he planned to cycle from south africa all the way back to austria. from south to north along the eastern side of africa. if i wanted to come along? he asked. i said, i can’t. maybe i should have said yes.

at this point, i should probably mention something important. hans was 68 years old when he started his trip, well into retirement. when societies expect people to have slowed down. to have become spectators rather than participants. hans appears to have missed that memo entirely.

i am happy to report that he completed the african part of the journey and returned home safely. although not without incident. his fellow cyclist from linz, also in austria, had an accident and needed to abort the journey. hans continued solo.

at one point he crossed into ethiopia illegally. this somehow happened because of a combination of weather, non-availability of internet connections, missing border checkpoints, et cetera.

what is clear is that the authorities were not particularly enthusiastic about the situation. with assistance from the austrian consulate, he eventually managed to negotiate the proposed fine from a staggering 14,000 dollars down to a merely eye-watering 4,000. a diplomatic success, if not necessarily a financial one.

shortly thereafter, another authority began making its voice heard. his knee. and unlike border and government officials, knees are remarkably difficult to negotiate with. after thousands of kilometres, it informed him, in increasingly direct language, that it might be time to head home. wisdom, after all, is not only knowing when to continue. it is also knowing when to stop.

so hans returned to austria. then he wrote a book. and sent me one. thank you - danke dir, lieber hans!

with his book he supports a project by the medical mission sisters in uganda, building a supply center for rehabilitation technology. aids such as wheelchairs, et cetera.

to support hans’ project in uganda go here.

so, how did i spend the last couple of days since returning to berlin?

i walked. this time not across galicia. but still towards santiago. the camino runs right past here. so, in some sense, it felt like a continuation.

the first walk was 22 kilometres, the second, 20,5. short by camino standards. on the camino, distances like these begin to feel almost ordinary. the body adjusts. what once seemed far becomes close. so, short walks.

but still long walks. long enough for thoughts to surface. long enough for conversations to deepen. long enough to arrive somewhere other than where you started.

i need those walks. have i arrived somewhere? it isn’t about that, it’s about walking on.

because i am increasingly convinced that walking is not merely a way of moving through space, across a landscape. it is a way of making space. space for conversation. space for reflection. space for noticing. space for understanding things that refuse to reveal themselves when sitting still.

perhaps because moving forward physically makes it easier to move forward emotionally.

step by step. without forcing.

simply allowing thoughts to unfold at their own pace. that is why i need these walks. and perhaps also for continuing the camino in the only way that truly matters. not by being on a particular path. but by remaining willing to walk it. not only willing, but grateful.