“She walks the earth freely, yet her feet never touch the ground. Many hands will reach for her, but she cannot be anchored. She belongs to no one, to nothing, to nowhere. When you meet her, you will recognize her for what she is–a free spirit, a wandering star. She will fit in your arms like she was made to be there. And she will show you what it means to hold something you can never hold on to.”

– Lang Leav

Wandering, by certain definition means to travel aimlessly from place to place. To walk about without any clear purpose or direction. Yet for me there is a purpose to Wandering. It is a conscious act to open oneself up to the unknown. The freeing of ones spirit to enter into a journey of discovery – open to any and all possibilities.

Wandering is the art of walking slowly. Open, relaxed, and connected to ones surroundings. It is a state of being that invites an awakening of all our senses…. a state of unknowing acceptance that we are part of the natural world, intertwined with all we see, smell, hear, touch, taste, and sense…

To wander is to be free. To be one with our surroundings, and to take time to discover our own true nature.

Its summer and time for wandering…

– Kellie Elmore

“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.”

– Wendell Berry

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“A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.”

– Pico Iyer

INSPIRATION TO WANDER... 

“While walking, the body and the mind can work together so that thinking becomes almost as physical, rhythmic act.”

– Rebecca Solnit

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Not all those who wander are lost

– J.R.R. Tolkien

ARTICLES ON WANDERING...

The Art of Aimlessly Wandering. Flânerie at the Barnes. 34 Street

The slow death of purposeless walking. BBC News Magazine

Anthropology: Flânerie is the Art of Wandering the City Aimlessly. yoair.com

What Is A Flaneur? What Is A Dandy? Slap Happy Larry (for writing technique geeks)

A tribute to female flâneurs: the women who reclaimed our city streets. The Guardian

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Smile, breathe and go slowly.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

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“It was a place as blank as a sheet of paper. It was the place I had always been looking for…
Flat expanses would call to me… These are the places where the desert is most itself: stark, open, free, an invitation to wander, a laboratory of perception, scale, light, a place where loneliness has a luxurious flavor…”

— Rebecca Solnit

A Takeover to inspire the wanderer in us all.
Presented by Ashleigh Downey (ecological artist, curator and founder of Greenhouse Culture)

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To view all contributors: TAKEOVER Full List