“To change the world, you must first change yourself”
What triggered your departure on the Via Francigena?
In the summer of 2013, during a family vacation in Tuscany, I saw, between two wheat fields, the sign “Via francigena”, with a logo representing a little man carrying his bag. This path, which starts in Canterbury (England) and crosses Italy, grabbed me.
It took me a while to understand that I shouldn’t wait for life to give me the opportunity to explore it. I decided to leave for a month, alone, from the Great St. Bernard Pass, on the border between Switzerland and Italy, and I walked to Rome.
One of your strong ideas is summarized at the beginning of your book: ” To change the world, you must first change yourself, and above all, live your dreams. » Does this pilgrimage embody this desire?
A deep desire, above all. We admire explorers who go to Everest, to Antarctica or into space, and we minimize our own dreams. But for each of us, these dreams are the expression of an inner power that must be respected and listened to. And it can be simply to spend a weekend bivouacking!
However, you mention some great travellers. Are they role models for you?
Great travelers have always fascinated me. I love reading their stories, their discoveries of new worlds in past centuries, their exploits and their surpassing in our contemporary world. I am grateful to them for sharing their explorations, but they are not role models for me. I do not envy their lives.
They sacrificed everything for an extraordinary dream. For my part, I prefer ordinary challenges, those that take us a step further than what we thought was impossible or forbidden, that broaden or increase our horizons and sweep away our presuppositions, but are part of our life path.
Throughout your story, we feel you are connected to the living. Where does this proximity with nature come from?
During my childhood, I spent my summers in Denmark, in Kerteminde. Whatever the weather, we lived outside. My mother rented a tiny apartment without a bathroom, above elderly people who were not to be disturbed. In Kerteminde, there is the sea everywhere, the forest, the fjord and its fields, and a small town where you can get around by bike. A quiet freedom out of time! Nowadays, I still spend my summers there, in a cabin without water or electricity, by the water. Of course, modern comforts are not far away for my large family! But it is a refuge where I recharge my batteries.
You are a fan of the MUL (ultra-light movement), and you left with a light bag: was this important for you?
Traveling is about taking only yourself and trusting the unknown. And then, there is a practical side to sobriety. I am small: carrying light is essential. For a month, I left with a bag that weighed 4.2 kg without water. Not only did I not miss anything, but I lost nothing. And I had so little to think about!
You write: ” Nothing new happens in familiar territory. We must move towards the unexpected, the unknown, the different. » Is this what happened to you?
With every step, the landscapes, the birds, the villages, the cuisine, the people… everything changes. We are present to what is happening now, and in ten steps it will be different. When we pass the top of the hill, we will have another view, another perspective.
Letting yourself be caught up in what comes, that is the magic of the path! Thoughts empty, evaporate, dissipate. We discover the intensity of simply being alive in the midst of the living, however tiny it may be. This simple revelation imprints another way of living and receiving what comes with gratitude.
Have you experienced moments of grace?
The moments that left their mark on me were the stops in chapels lost in the middle of the countryside, a glance with a deer that lasted several seconds, a fruit picked from a tree and bitten into, a swim in a waterfall hidden under the branches. And then, I dare say it: I am a foodie, so I would add the coffee break or lunch in the village bistro, among the people.
Thousands of moments of grace that cultivate gratitude! Everything is beautiful in Italy. Of course, there is the stunningly perfect beauty of Siena and Tuscany, but the crossing of the Apennines, harsh and wild, was even more moving.
” The paradox of walking is that it grounds us »you write again. What do you mean by that?
Being in motion, listening, on the lookout, pushes away thoughts (which supposedly shape us, and in reality build our inner walls) to bring us back to our essence. We are a mass of memories, experiences, knowledge that are of little use in the next step and the next. Decluttering roots us in our body, gives us a new form of incarnation.
I am hungry, I am thirsty, I am sleepy, I am tired. The body decides, the eyes are used to see, the hands to touch, the mouth to taste, the ears to hear, the nose to smell: that’s all, and this return to the essential brings a childlike joy. Walking therefore roots us in this body so often neglected, mistreated, forgotten, as much as in what grounds us: our personal and family history, our founding events and especially our buried desires.
You quote the philosopher Simone Weil, who wrote: ” Joy is an essential need of the soul. » Have you found joy in walking?
Joy has always been my quest… but often without success! Indeed, it has nothing to do with circumstances and particular happiness. It is born in the gratitude of being, and in what Christian Bobin calls “to join in silence this love that is missing from all love”. These conditions of stripped-down travel bring freely, without effort, this overflowing, invasive joy, because it is Life.
More specifically, what have solitude, silence and slowness brought you?
The return to childhood, to gratuity, to a form of innocence. Since I did not have to worry about others, I could do without organizing, without anticipating. Moreover, when we walk in pairs or in groups, we comment on what we see: “Did you see the beautiful bird? How beautiful is this chapel!” We put a definition, an attribute on things to share them. Alone, we take the emotion head on. Without preparation, without interpretation, without commentary. Paradoxically, this gives the feeling of communing with all those we love. Even without words, without physical presence, the sharing of souls is very present.
You notice that ” Often, the most beautiful things happen following a setback, a disappointment, bad news. ». Examples during this trip?
I tried to plan little. And when I did, I made a mistake in my reservations! So I had to adapt at the last minute, jump in a taxi, change cities: this was the unintentional unexpected event created by my own negligence. And then, another unexpected event happened: the meeting that would not have happened without this mistake. This is how I met two Belgians, who became friends.
” The body in motion awakens the heart »you write. What do you mean?
It is almost impossible to chase away bad ideas, sadness, anger through thought. On the other hand, the body in motion helps the healing of the soul. It is not by chance that religions have established postures to help pray! The heart then finds its beats, its breathing, its appetite for life.
Thus, the health of the body promotes the health of the soul. In our daily life, where we no longer have the opportunity to be cold, sleepy or hungry, the body is paradoxically the great forgotten one while it is our viaticum.
You complete your thought like this: ” Daring is the beginning of healing. » Can you clarify?
It’s that simple! This sentence also applies to the most ordinary moments of existence. We don’t need to change everything in our lives to nourish our quest. We must dare to stand, where we are. There is no need to go on great expeditions or put ourselves in danger. On the other hand, it is by endangering our habits, our reflexes, our presuppositions, by letting ourselves be shaken up day by day that we go as far as possible from ourselves, and that we discover that we are not what we have accomplished. It is by being fully ourselves, by shedding the “old coat”, that we reveal ourselves.
In his preface, Guy Martin asks this question: ” Clara connected dots, but did she find what she was looking for? » What is your answer?
Yes and no! In this pilgrimage, I wanted to open a parenthesis, with no other responsibility than to live day by day following a thousand-year-old path. I was not looking for an answer to a specific question, nor for consolation after a bereavement, a separation or an illness. I wanted to learn to be present in the present, like the birds of the sky: another form of incarnation that does not worry about tomorrow.
In my life as a business leader and mother of a large family, I built myself by building, anticipating, protecting, and being constantly on the lookout. There, I rediscovered the magic of being, intensely, far from mental constructions. It was like a mental fast. A salutary, joyful and beneficial purification.
What is essential for you?
Love. Everything else is just agitation! Love of oneself, of others, of the earth, of God. It is so simple, universal and impossible to attain. This thirst has inhabited me since childhood. I hope it will never leave me.
Your pilgrim friends of Compostela told you that another, more interior journey begins on the return. Are you on this journey?
The return was difficult. The very next day, I was at the office, immersed in a rhythm that I had forgotten. But a deep serenity inhabited me: nothing was serious or impossible. Thus, the quest that had begun continues. I discover another form of incarnation. Not easier, but more intense, which more easily detects all the little lies that we invent to find favor in our own eyes. The stripping away of artifice is merciless, but makes one so much freer!
