Written by Sam Chawla-Rios
Pax Christi USA Young Adult Caucus
This past Holy Week (March 28-April 3), I had the privilege of participating in the annual Sacred Peace Walk in Nevada, on the unceded land of the Piaute and Western Shoshone Nations. Little did I know going into it that I would return home a changed person.
To briefly provide a high-level recap of the week, roughly 25 of us walked through the desert for five days, covering around 60 miles. This included a walk through the heart of Las Vegas, but most of the time was spent along a main stretch of highway surrounded by the majestic mountains and open skies of Nevada. During the week, we participated in several vigils, teach-ins, a die-in, and two powerful civil disobedience actions held at Creech Air Force Base and the Nevada National Security Site (a nuclear testing location), respectively.
This experience was certainly not all sunshine and rainbows. The long days of continuous walking pained not only my feet, but muscles I didn’t even know I had. By the final mile, I was visibly hobbling. Days spent in the direct sun, paired with nonstop crosswinds and headwinds, did little to ease the journey. One day in particular was spent battling a powerful headwind with gusts of 50 mph. The camping situation was also challenging for a first-time camper like myself, with at least three nights of restless sleep caused by relentless winds loudly shaking my tent. Looking back on these challenges now, I see them all as deeper lessons I was fortunate enough to learn along the way.
These learnings, along with many others, made the week of walking for peace something beyond just an experience; it became a formative shift that now informs how I choose to engage in social justice work.
This year’s group had the unique experience of attending the Las Vegas No Kings rally before our first day of walking. Having been to countless rallies and demonstrations before, this was not unfamiliar territory for me. On the contrary, these types of actions have long been a significant part of the activism I participate in. The location was different, the absurd police presence was also new to me, but overall, it carried the typical energy that would be expected at such an event.
What was new to me, however, was the dramatic juxtaposition of this type of polarized, heated, even angry action and a week-long intentional walk for the peace of all creation that called for an end to militarism, nuclear weapons, and drone warfare. The energy present in each was profoundly different. Where one felt more destructive toward my relationship with fellow human beings, the other felt inviting and even creatively healing. I came to see clearly that it is possible to participate in nonviolent direct action in a manner that is also deeply healing, both personally and interpersonally.
I am most grateful for the newfound relationships this experience brought into my life – more specifically, my relationship with the Western Shoshone people and my relationship with sacred Earth and water. In my years of anti-war activism, I have become well-informed of the nuclear crisis and the horrors of drone warfare, and those were the issues I joined the walk to oppose. But I am so incredibly thankful that this experience also awakened me to a relationship with Earth as a protector and steward. There was nothing like meditating to the beauty of the desert for hours each day while learning about how the Western Shoshone have been caring for the land for generations with genuine reverence. I am now beginning to better understand my duty and role in relationship to sacred nature.
I would like to express immense gratitude toward the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus for informing me of this opportunity, and for Pax Christi USA for helping to sponsor the trip. I highly encourage anyone who may be feeling the nudge to experience a life-changing Holy Week to consider joining the Sacred Peace Walk.
