Living Locally by Louis Cox and Ruah Swennerfelt We are about to embark on a spiritual journey that will be a physical journey as well. On November 1 we will leave for Vancouver, British Columbia, to begin a six-month walk to San Diego, California. We will meet with Quaker meetings and community groups along the way. We expect to cover about 1,400 miles in these six months. Ruah will be on sabbatical from her work with Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW), and Louis will continue editing the newsletter and maintaining the website of QEW.

We have been inspired to walk in the way that John Woolman, an 18th-century Quaker, walked from Meeting to Meeting to express his concern about the spiritual health of the Religious Society of Friends. Although he is mostly known for his witness against slavery and other injustices, he also was burdened by the knowledge that Friends were caught up in materialism, overwork and a disregard for non-humans.

We are calling this walk “The Peace for Earth Walk: Rediscovering John Woolman’s Message for the 21st Century.” The main purpose of our travels is to learn for ourselves and to share with others the connections between peace, justice and care for the earth, as well as the personal responsibility that a true understanding of this connection requires. We hope that our journey will be a catalyst for action.

We want to make John Woolman’s message relevant to today instead of just looking at Woolman and his ministry historically or as a saintly gesture beyond the reach of ordinary people. We also want to share the insights of Woolman with non-Quakers. Because we are aware of the environmental impact of transportation and look forward to the contact with broad cross-sections of the populations, we are choosing to walk and to stay among Friends as Woolman often did. (Anyone interest in learning more about Woolman can read The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, edited by Phillips P. Moulton.)

Why would we take such a journey? Is it not foolish to walk when with motorized transportation we could be whisked from city to city in no time at all? Couldn’t we visit more Meetings? Be more efficient? But if the message we carry is one to slow down and focus more on our spiritual lives, how could we be so focused if we are rushing from place to place? This journey grows from the same roots as our marriage, a common concern for the earth. The aim of our journey is to listen and to share about living richly, simply and justly in a world with limited resources. Woolman warned his generation about “a great injury to succeeding ages” because of their “strivings after ease and luxury” and “outward greatness.” His prophetic message is relevant today because so many wars are based on the unjust and unsustainable use of nonrenewable resources. We also see manifold social and ecological disruptions due to the combined effects of overconsumption and population pressures. We have the additional example of Joseph Hoag, a 19th-century Quaker from Monkton, who made similar journeys among Quaker Meetings in witness against slavery.

We probably would not be undertaking this dramatic and daunting effort if it were not for our belief that we are living in a time of planetary crisis at many levels, all of which are reflections of a spiritual crisis. We understand that we need to awaken to our complicity in this crisis and to undertake the necessary radical changes to leave a healthy, peaceful and just planet for future generations.

We are developing a website, www.peaceforearth.org, where Friends will be able to follow our plans and, once we’re on the walk, to follow our journey.

We will be talking about our plans and presenting a skit after a local-foods potluck at the next Charlotte Sustainable Living Network gathering at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, September 25. We hope you can be there.