Backpacking with the Saints Quotes

“Attentiveness is hard to sustain, however. That’s why backpacking remains an essential practice for me. It requires a consistent mindfulness and self-presence. It demands my keeping an eye on the trail, attending to variations in the terrain and weather patterns, noticing changes in my body as weariness rises or blisters start to form. It necessitates a reading of the entire landscape, learning to dance and flow with the interconnectedness of its details.”
― Belden C Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice

“The spiritual life involves risk. There’s no way around it. The paradox of biblical religion is that God cannot be understood, much less managed. Coming to terms with ultimate mystery is always dangerous. But to our amazement, encountering the Holy can also mean being strangely and unaccountably loved.”
― Belden C. Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice

“Exposure to the harsh realities and fierce beauties of a world not aimed at my comfort has a way of cutting through the self-absorption of my life. The uncontrolled mystery of nature puts the ego in check and invites the soul back (in more than one way) to the ground of its being. It elicits the soul’s deepest desire, enforces a rigorous discipline, and demands a life marked by activism and resistance. It reminds me, in short, that spiritual practice—far from being anything ethereal—is a highly tactile, embodied, and visceral affair.”
― Belden C. Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice

“…wilderness backpacking can be a form of spiritual practice…Exposure to the harsh realities and fierce beauties of a world not aimed at my comfort has a way of cutting through the self-absorption of my life. The uncontrolled mystery of nature puts the ego in check and invites the soul back (in more than one way) to the ground of its being. It elicits the soul’s deepest desire, enforces a rigorous discipline, and demands a life marked by activism and resistance. It reminds me, in short, that spiritual practice – far from being anything ethereal – is a highly tactile, embodied, and visceral affair. (p 4)”
― Belden C. Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice

“Backpacking as a spiritual discipline is both rewarding and unsettling. Few experiences in my life are as total—or as demanding.”
― Belden C Lane, Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice