Count the Cost
By Jenn Wood
In August, organizers from the West County Climate Circle led a walk through Shelburne Falls, MA, to highlight the impact that funding cuts made in D.C. have on their county. The walk has a name: Count the Cost: A Peaceful Walk of Lament and Commitment. One of their guiding questions is: how do these funding cuts affect us right here?
Lea’s dear friend, Alison Cornish, was one of the organizers of this Commitment, and it was she who sent me this article from the local paper. I contacted Alison and asked permission to write up the walk, hoping to inspire others as it inspired me, and here we are :)
Alison, a Unitarian Minister, told me about the walk being a model of protest. She takes part in the Way of the Cross annual walk in D.C. around the federal buildings, led by Christian congregations, each spring on Good Friday. The act of walking to specific sites is an opportunity to tell a story and honor what has happened or is happening, especially how it relates to loss. During our call, Alison said that signs could also be used to identify locations, so individuals or groups can walk on their own in lieu of a scheduled event.
I think about who? what? where? when? why? Who and what do we want to honor? Where and when? Why are we telling the story of this person and this place? What story do we want to tell?
Alison created a guide template so that others may organize their own Walks of Lament. I’ve attached the full guide below, but I want to highlight the inspiration for this practice of observing and honoring the very real losses all around us.
Inspiration:
The concept of Descansos. From Clarissa Pinkola Estés: “if you have ever traveled in Old Mexico, southern Colorado, Arizona, or parts of the South, you’ve seen little white crosses by the roadway. These are descanos, resting places. You’ll also find them on the edges of cliffs along particularly scenic but dangerous roads in Greece, Italy, and other Mediterranean countries… Descansos are symbols that mark a death. Right there, right on that spot, someone’s journey in life halted unexpectedly… Something happened there that altered that person’s life and the lives of other persons forever…[In my work with women, helping them to look at their lives and mark the little and big deaths] we mark where there were roads not taken, paths that were cut off, ambushes, betrayals and deaths… Where are the crosses [marking deaths]? Where are the places that must be remembered, must be blessed?”
Lastly, I want to share this excerpt from Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Let this sentiment light your way if you choose to bring a Walk of Lament to your community.
“Be gentle with yourself and make the descansos, the resting places for the part of yourself that were on their way to somewhere but they never got to. They mark the death site. They are markers of your dark times. But they are also love notes to your suffering– they are transformative. There is a lot to be said for pinning things to the earth so they don’t follow us around. What it really means is laying your rage to rest so that you can create the wild woman.”
Here is the full guide shared by Alison Cornish:
