Menu
Walker’s ‘spiritual journey’ makes Greencastle stop
“Walk to Chicago.”
This was a seemingly straightforward statement uttered by a voice which “Heartwalker” Russ Mobley heard inside his head.
However, he would say that this was a moment of epiphany; a moment of mental and spiritual clarity which came from deep inside.
This voice would prompt Mobley, 60, to undertake a 1,098-mile journey on foot from central Florida to Chicago. He was compelled to do it for his own growth, though he has connected with people of different convictions and backgrounds along the way.
It seemed that Mobley is making his trek in a different spirit than that of Forrest Gump’s long-distance run. This isn’t simply because he felt like doing it; it’s perhaps more esoteric than that.
Coming from Cloverdale way, he saw the murals on the silos at the S & W Feed Center as he entered Greencastle. He then visited Greencastle Christian Church and the Center for Spiritual Life at DePauw University, where he got to know its director, Sami Aziz.
He then sat down for some refreshment at Starbucks before making his way toward Bainbridge. However, he was more than willing - indeed, truly enthusiastic - to share his philosophy about people and what is important.
“I live for my heart and soul,” he said in a sit-down conversation with the Banner Graphic. “I ask my heart and soul what the next fearless action I should take is.”
That moment when he heard that voice in his head came when he was overseas in Turkey. Mobley described it as a “real strong prompting” that genuinely came from inside. For him, it signaled an opportunity to break away from the influences of the material world.
Once he returned to the states, he told his wife Ashvini that he would actually do it, and prepared for the long walk which would eventually bring him all the way to Putnam County. Once he looked up the distance on MapQuest, his mind was set.
“I asked her if she was sure that she wanted me to walk,” Mobley said. “We had to arrange for finances and such, but she supported it, because we are there for each other’s spiritual fulfillment.
“She told me that this was coming from the heart, that I had to walk for my spiritual heart,” he added.
However, it was another epiphany which Mobley had at age 45 that changed his paradigm completely. Another voice which he heard inside his head came when he - as he described it - was succumbing to “addiction,” broadly defined.
“I was an addict, and I also struggled with depression to where I came close to committing suicide,” he shared. “I had another spiritual encounter where I finally resolved to let go of that stress.”
This voice said three things that he implied would come to define his outlook on life and his interaction with those in it.
It first told Mobley “You’re half dead.” This made sense to him, as he related he had figured he could live to be 90 years old. He wrote down this phrase when the voice suddenly came back to him.
“Everybody’s right,” it told him. Mobley resolved to write this down as well. Then the voice returned to him for a third and final time.
“Happiness is a choice,” the voice concluded.
Those three statements indicated to Mobley, in both his heart and soul, that he could overcome his depression and his material addictions which held him back.
“It was this encounter that inspired me to let go of all of that frustration,” Mobley said. “I stopped judging people and began to love everyone.
“An addict is someone who is trying to take the stress away,” he said with conviction. “I think there is a universal cosmic separation from our natural state of being. We’re always under stress, because we live in a microwave society.”
Mobley said he grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition, and has had a strong Christian root throughout his life. However, he added that he recognizes core principles of love and acceptance taught across different faiths.
He is also a practitioner and teacher of Amrit Method yoga, which focuses on living to the fullest and being spontaneous, though doing so by committing ones’ self purposefully and joyfully to it.
“My mind is no longer my master,” Mobley said. “For me, it’s about letting go to love life.”
He encapsulated his spiritual perspective before and after turning that corner in a phrase from the Epistle to the Philippians: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Mobley, who bears a passing resemblance to bass guitarist Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, is also a singer-songwriter. As such, he has carried a Martin travel guitar with him on his way to the Windy City.
His idea of what it means to be a free spirit has inspired people he has interacted with along the way, as well as aroused confusion and skepticism at times.
“I’ve embraced all different people, from the homeless to the millionaires who have come to see me,” he said. “That includes even those who ‘teach’ others how to love people.
“There have been those who don’t understand what I am doing or felt threatened,” he added. “Police have been called on me. Someone once asked why I don’t carry a gun with me. Why should I?”
Mobley, a native of Charleston, S.C., began this spiritual journey on July 24 from his home in Salt Springs, Fla., which is situated in the Ocala National Forest between Orlando and Jacksonville.
Describing it as “meditation in motion” to find an inner peace, he repeatedly emphasized that this long-distance walk was still focused on interacting with the people he meets.
“I’ve walked 950 miles up to this point, and I’ve talked to more than 950 people,” Mobley said. “What I love to do is to connect with others.”
“I want to bring awareness for people to relax, and for people to live from the heart and soul.”
Mobley has averaged 11 miles a day, including any rest days he may take. Of course, this depends on where he ends up and does on the fly. He is not on a schedule by any means, and there is no set date for when he will arrive in Chicago.
The Heartwalker wouldn’t, and doesn’t, want it any other way.