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Walk #30 Yr 1 Victoria West Park West Fresno

August 25, 2015December 22, 2016 By fmw

REFLECTION on Walk #30, West Fresno from Victoria West Community Park at Clinton and Brawley. Five FM Walkers started off on a cold, very foggy Saturday morning. But this intersection was already up and going. Victoria West park is big and awesome, and hundreds of families with soccer players filled up the foggy fields and parking lot. Mini vans, SUVs, and older model 4 door cars streamed into the park lot, then unloaded strollers, blankets, sports equipment, all while balancing travel coffee mugs. Coaches coached in Spanish, families watched, and FMWalkers took it all in with smiles. Wonderful! See the photo album for Walk #30.
After the silent walk, the Walkers described this walk with these words: juxtaposition, multi-cultural, looking through the fog, and relaxation.
Walkers moved from a busy soccer field, to a sub-division neighborhood, to a Buddhist temple, to county roads with no sidewalks, to a Laundry Mat memorial for slain Janessa all within a few miles. We heard Spanish and Cambodian. We walked past Indian men in flowing white cotton. Foreign words filled the signs in the strip mall. Taco Bell’s kitchen was already in production.
The stop at the Buddhist Temple on Valentine added about 15 minutes to our walk. We met Nimul and Knour who greeted us and gladly invited us in to their beautiful temples. Knour was there with his wife and family to serve the Monks their daily meal. The 9 monks who reside there only eat once a day, and families sign up to bring in the daily meal. Knour told us this temple is open all hours, and welcomes worshippers any time. The gates are always open. Nimul told us about the upcoming New Year’s celebration with tons of food, we are all welcome to come back.
Walkers talked about the rural feeling of this area, long stretches of dilapidated fences, open fields, dry canals, beware of dog signs, rows of strawberries and dried grape vines.
We entered the parking lot of the strip mall where just 2 weeks earlier 9 year old Janessa Ramirez was shot and killed by a person shooting a gun at someone else. A beautiful tribute of flowers, and signs, and balloons and posters fills the windows of the laundry mat. I spoke with Cecelia who was inside folding her laundry. This was her first time coming to this laundry mat, but she knows about Janessa and prays for her mother every day. Cecelia says she is not afraid because she asks the Lord to protect her, and she knows that the Lord is now holding Janessa with him.
After the Walk, walkers talked about the striking difference between the seemingly safe environment on the surface as families are filling up the park and the busy streets. But underneath, Fresno has a dangerous ‘under belly’ of gangs and violence. Walkers talked about how life goes on even after such a tragedy that should stop the entire city in its tracks.
All five walkers talked with deep emotion after this walk, at the beauty of families, the beauty of many cultures living side by side, the beauty of rural and dense housing mixed together, the beauty of people coming together to grieve.
Here in West Fresno, between Clinton and Shields and 99 and Brawley, live our brothers and sisters, precious children and dangerous gang members and everyone on the spectrum. And all our futures are tied up together.

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  Walk #29 Yr 2 Barstow and 6th, St. Paul’s Newman Center
Walk #31, Yr 1 Van Ness Blvd and neighborhoods to the west  

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UPCOMING WALK: Saturday, January 29, 2022, 10 a.m.

Fresno Mindfulness Walks will lead a Saturday morning walk on January 29, 2022, beginning at 10 am. at 271 N. Glenn Ave., Fresno, CA 93701 (the home of Craig Scharton).  
 
The walk will be about 3 miles, at a stroll to medium pace, occasionally on uneven ground, and take about an hour and a half. By walking mindfully and without talking, we will experience the Lowell neighborhood in new ways. At the conclusion of the walk, we’ll gather back at Craig’s yard and spend a few minutes talking about what we discovered about ourselves and the neighborhood. 
Walks are free and require no RSVP. Look for the Facebook event to share with your friends. For email notifications, sign up in the yellow bar at the top.
Lori Clanton
Lucky Leader to Fresno Mindfulness Walks

How FMW works —

Fresno Mindfulness Walks are weekly opportunities for people to walk together for a 4 mile route through a different Fresno neighborhood each week. Walkers practice active mindfulness by attending to the sights, sounds, smells, feelings.  Walkers do not talk to each other on walks, but we do greet people we meet along the way.  The walk location and exact start time are posted just a few days in advance. All walks are free, require no RSVP, and anyone is welcome to join one walk or many. To learn about upcoming walks, you can sign up for a weekly email in the yellow bar at the top of this website and/or LIKE and follow the FMW Facebook page.

 

To learn about the routine that begins each walk and read some of the resources that have inspired FMW, check out the resources page.

 

Weekly walks are about 4 miles and take about an hour and a half. Walks are at a medium pace, often on uneven ground, and sometimes take longer than expected because walkers see themselves as curious travelers lingering to observe or going around a different way.

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