Over 100 + shoes and soles we have collected from Kehoe Beach will be presented on March 16 during the day at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station as an art installation for the Geography of Hope Conference. Our beach soles will greet people as they enter the conference in the morning and will send them on their way in the evening. During lunch we will be available at a “shoe station” for people to try on the shoes and experience what it means to walk in another persons shoes. On Sunday morning the shoes will be placed at the trailhead of Woodpecker Trail as people embark on the community pilgrimage walk.
Since 1999 Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang, as a collaborative team, have been visiting Kehoe Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore. We have rambled 1000 meters of this tideline hundreds of times to gather plastic debris washing out of the Pacific Ocean. Along the way we have collected boxes of shoe parts, heels, padded inserts, flip-flops, and whole shoes, shoes that have been on a journey over land and sea. Never a pair, just one right or one left. Tattered and worn, each poses a question, about where it came from and the ocean currents that connect us all. Each shoe has a story to tell.
“Not until we are lost do we begin
to understand ourselves.”
—Henry David Thoreau
“It is good to have an end to journey toward,
but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
– Ursula K. Le Guin
“Do not seek to walk in the footsteps
of the wise men of old, seek what they sought.”
– Matsuo Bashō
"It feels good to be lost in the right direction.”
– Anonymous
“You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting,
So… get on your way!”
– Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
“Only those who will risk going too far
can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T.S. Eliot
“Each day is a journey,
and the journey itself is home.”
– Matsuo Bashō
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
– Jawaharial Nehru
If you understand— things are just as they are.
If you do not understand— things are just as they are.
—Zen saying
"When I let go of what I am,
I become what I might be."
I become what I might be."
– Lao Tzu
“All journeys have secret destinations
of which the traveler is unaware.”
— Martin Buber
Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. – Stephen Wright
One’s destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things. – Henry Miller
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius
"Follow your star and you will never fail to find your glorious port." ― Dante Alighieri
“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer.” ― John Muir
“Walking is also an ambulation of mind.” ― Gretel Ehrlich