Most people know the expression, Go On Walkabout, comes from the Aboriginal people. But most people don’t know much about the underlying reasons for the practice. When Aboriginal people set off on a Walkabout, they’re taking a spiritual journey to a “Belonging Place” in order to renew their relationship with their Dreaming and the Landscape.
I was born a Dreamer. And I’d been going on my own version of Walkabouts long before I’d ever heard of the term or learned anything about the Aboriginal people. In fact, I’ve been traveling to my Belonging Places ever since I was old enough to set off by myself. Since I’m getting ready to set off for another Belonging Place, I thought I’d share how the process works for me.
Every so many years, I get this itch, urge, calling to take off by myself for parts unknown. It starts as a soft rumbling down in my toes that gradually grows into a loud roar as it makes its way up into my head. Sometimes, it can take several months for it to reach my consciousness. Sometimes, it happens within weeks. But once it starts happening, it persists until I finally “get the message.”
Once I feel that familiar tingle in my toes, I start listening. Listening for where it is that I need to go. That piece, too, can take a while to make itself known. But, eventually, that also becomes clear—sometimes through dreams and sometimes through a place that just keeps popping into my head for no reason.
The interesting thing about trusting your body to know where it wants to send you is that it’s often not a place where you’d consciously choose to go. As a matter of fact, on the few occasions when I’ve shared where I was going, people just shake their heads, mystified, telling me that nobody but me would make such-and-such-place a destination. This is just as well because I’m not looking for company; I prefer to go on my Walkabouts alone.
Since most of my Belonging Places have been pretty far away (and this one coming up is no different), unlike Aboriginal people, I can’t realistically walk to them. The next best thing for me is to fly close to where I need to go and then make the rest of the journey by car and then by foot.
And when I say “close to where I need to go” it’s not like there’s a town, a street, a house, or even a person I’m looking for. Like the Aboriginal people, it has always been about the landscape for me. I leave with no planned itinerary and no more specific destination than to say, for example, I’m going to these mountains, or these plains, or this desert, etc. Then when I get there, I’m free to go where the spirit takes me. There’s something infinitely freeing about it for me.
By giving myself this time alone to reconnect with myself and to draw strength from various landscapes, I always come back renewed and reinvigorated, brimming with creativity.
If it all sounds a little crazy to you, it’s really no different than someone else deciding to go to a spa or a retreat or any other vacation get-away. And, truth be told, it’s a lot less expensive.
So, if you’re feeling ready for an adventure and you’d like to give it a try, start by listening to your body and see what comes up. It’s different for different people. Some people decide to take a walk to where they originated; others go to a place where they feel part of the land and the land is part of them.
You don’t have to go alone, and you don’t have to go for a long time. The main thing is just to give yourself the freedom to go.