Willow Glen Resident
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Couple includes San Jose stop on 1,400-mile 'Peace For Earth' trek
By Mary Gottschalk
There are plenty of reasons to walk.
"The moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow," wrote Henry David Thoreau.
Raymond Inmon advised, "If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk."
And Fats Domino found that singing about "Walking to New Orleans" was an excellent source of income.
Now Ruah Swennerfelt, 60, and Louis Cox, 64, are walking 1,400 miles from Vancouver to San Diego, stopping in San Jose on March 8.
Their reasons are in the name that they have given their six-month trek--"Peace For Earth Walk."
Along the way they are stopping to meet with fellow Quakers and others interested in their message and experiences
"We both work for Quaker Earth Care Witness," says Swennerfelt, adding that she is on sabbatical for the walk. Cox is also on sabbatical, but is continuing to edit the group's newsletter and maintain its website while walking.
The couple lives in Vermont, and on a previous sabbatical, they took a bus trip to Texas, Mexico and Central America and then spent a month in Cuba.
Swennerfelt says when she and her husband were discussing what to do on this sabbatical, they initially considered following the walking journey of John Woolman, an 18th-century Quaker who is best known for his opposition to slavery.
Less well known is Woolman's role as an environmentalist, and it is this message that the couple is emphasizing with their walk.
"This sabbatical is really an extension of our work for Quaker Earth Care Witness because we carry the same message the organization does about caring for the Earth as a spiritual concern, and we're using John Woolman's example," Swennerfelt says.
In conjunction with the walk, the couple wrote a study guide based on Woolman's teachings titled "Walking in the Light." They distribute copies at each of their stops and have made it available online.
"We wanted to provide something that would be a follow-up to our visit so it wouldn't just be the end. We come in and we're gone and there it is," she says. "We're so hoping people will see that there's something more to be done, lots more."
Swennerfelt says they open each presentation with "a skit that brings this 18th-century John Woolman to people today. It's not a normal lecture."
Although Swennerfelt and Cox did extensive preparation for their walk, including hiking 100 miles in eight days to test their backpacks, shoes and other equipment, she says when they finally reached the West Coast they found, "We still didn't have everything we needed or the right things."
They soon did and set out on Nov. 1 for an experience that Swennerfelt says "has been way beyond what our expectations were."
"We have been so supported. It's definitely not a walk of Ruah and Louis, it's a walk of hundreds of people."
There were the people who supported the couple in preparation for the walk, helping them prepare their presentation, and there are the people in each community who help them plot the safest walking route from Quaker meeting to Quaker meeting.
Already past the halfway point, Swennerfelt says the low point thus far was "a day where we had camped the night before. It was raining all day. It was cold, and we woke up with sore throats, saying, 'Whose idea was this?'
"Our host family we came to knew how we were feeling. They had chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and hot tea waiting.
"They said, 'We're going to take care of you.' "
Swennerfelt calls it "the frustration of the moment" and says that after a bit of coddling they were reinvigorated.
When it comes to high points, she says there have been many.
"People have walked with us, hosted us, fed us, financially supported us, and we've walked in beautiful places and seen magnificent birds and scenery," she says.
"It's been a dream. We did walk through a lot of cold, rainy stuff, too, but it didn't dampen our spirits at all."
The couple expects to end their walk on April 23 in La Jolla, near San Diego.
Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox will be at the Quaker Meeting House, 1041 Morse St., between Newhall Street and Hwy. 880, on March 8 at 7 p.m. For additional information on their walk or to read their blog and study guide, visit www.peaceforearth.org.
