Walking is…Human Evolution
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I would hazard to guess that you have never looked at walking this way! Read on….
When our ancestors first found both the reason and the ability to stand on two legs, it was the first rapid shift; everything changed. It began with survival: better access to food and water, and the ability to see danger approaching. With new stature came new awareness. The horizon, once close, now stretched outward. And inevitably, hominids wondered what lay beyond.
Standing upright freed their arms and hands. They carried water, cradled infants, tended wounds, shaped tools, made clothing and created things very few other animals ever did. With each step, a new world unfolded, not just one of motion, but of creation, protection, and connection. Walking didn’t simply move them forward. It accelerated who we would eventually become.
As their communities grew more complex, they began to specialise as hunters, toolmakers, healers, navigators and much more. They settled when land was fertile, continued to walk to forage for food, explore, find resources, exchange with others, and protect what they had. When seasons shifted or resources dwindled, they lifted their feet and walked on.
And all the while, their fertile youth rebelled, as our teenagers still do today. They looked to the horizon, strode in search for a different tribe, an attractive partner and their own identity. In doing so, they carried new stories, new ideas, and new DNA into distant lands. Their wandering became our diversity.
Around this time another “discovery” reshaped them, and ultimately us: fire.
Cooked food became softer, richer in calories, easier to digest. They no longer needed to spend all day chewing or foraging. Bellies filled faster. Energy became abundant.
With fuller bellies and fire, came something extraordinary.
People gathered around the fire at night. They sat instead of hunted. They talked instead of foraged. In that warm circle of light, language began to take shape. Stories were shared. Questions asked. Memories retold. Danger imagined. Futures dreamed. Evolution accelerated.
And now, walking had a new purpose: to gather wood to keep the fire burning, a daily ritual that fed both body and culture. Around those flames, they began walking real paths in their minds. Culture - our culture - became incredibly rich and complex. Our brains grew rapidly.
As imagination grew, walking became more than necessity. Every story became, in some way, a walking story.
But now the walking could also become abstract and fantastic - heroes crossing deserts, spirits wandering mountains, journeys into the underworld, returns transformed, myths created. Walking moved from movement to metaphor, from survival to meaning.
Walking didn’t just accompany our growth as a species. Walking shaped our evolution. It defines what it means to be human. So much more than transport.
Walking is how we carry our culture, our families, our community, our knowledge, our mythology and our creativity across continents and eventually the world.
And here’s the rub, do we still actually walk?
Today:
We move at speed but travel the ground less.
While our legs rest, our minds sprint across endless digital landscapes.
Our fingers stroll, or scroll, through horizons on glass screens.
Our bodies sit idle while our thoughts flicker from one stimulus to the next.
Our natural stride broken by the highs and lows of sugar hits, dominating our mood.
Broken sleep slowly drains us as we stumble through our days half-awake.
Easy comfort of modern life drags us away from that which movement once provided.
The use of legal and illegal drugs provides trips, but not those of discovery.
Even our attention wanders, softened by habits we never meant to form.
And beneath it all sits a simple reality: when walking becomes crawling, evolution slows to a halt. Furthermore, we lose the simple rhythm that once connected us to the earth, and fail to care whether or not we are destroying it – one fellow creature at a time.
In much of the world, we’ve been taught to override instinct rather than listen to it. We have stepped so far from our “Wild Creature Minds” (thank you for the extraordinary book, Steve Biddulph) that we no longer trust a large part of our brain.
Our feet have become as disconnected to the earth by our shoes as our mind has from its inner spirit by our lifestyle.
As David Whyte reminds us: “The body holds its own intelligence, and walking is how we learn to trust it again.”
That instinct hasn’t gone. It waits, quiet and patient, in the soles of our feet.
Thich Nhat Hanh writes: “Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
The earth needs our kisses and much more affection.
I believe that this is nothing short of a crisis. So much so that I have decided to create a movement dedicated to long-distance, mindful walking called Power of Pilgrimage.
Each time we choose to walk - to really walk - we reconnect with the oldest story we ever told:
the story of human evolution.
Love walking and a good story? That’s what I write. You’ll see various themes.
Follow me on the journey.
🥾 My Walking Life – Camino stories and other trails and tales.
💭 Walking is… the philosophy of walking.
👣 Walk-Life Balance – interviews and stories from other pilgrims.
🌿 Sometimes I Don’t Walk – life’s lessons learned - not by walking.
📍 Pilgrimage in Practice – practical tips for long-distance, mindful walking.
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#Walking #Pilgrimage #CaminoDeSantiago #Mindfulness #Storytelling #HumanConnection #LifeInTransition #WalkingMeditation #ExploreWithPurpose #WalkYourPath #Retirement
